Krummenau 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 .
126-596: The municipality lies in the Hunsrück north of the 746 m-high Idarkopf in the Idar Forest . The municipal area is 61.6% wooded. The Idarbach flows through the village. Krummenau borders in the north on the municipality of Niederweiler , in the east on the municipality of Laufersweiler and in the west on the municipality of Horbruch . Also belonging to Krummenau is the outlying homestead of Weylandsmühle. On 20 November 1086, Krummenau had its first documentary mention in
252-497: A timber-frame house that had been the only one in the village with a mansard roof . It was torn down in 1977. In 1958, there were 8 cars in Krummenau. Given the dearth of public transport in Krummenau, cars were viewed as a necessity, and through the years, their numbers rose. By 1984, there were 48. The rise in popularity of motoring spurred improvements to the local roads. Work on tarring roadways to neighbouring villages, however,
378-618: A combination of an oceanic influence and relief precipitation . Culturally, the region is best known for its Hunsrückisch dialect and through depictions in the Heimat film series. The region saw great emigration in the mid-19th century, particularly to Brazil . The heart of the Hunsrück is formed by the Hunsrück Plateau and the Simmern Bowl. In the northwest the Hunsrück is bounded by
504-513: A cramp palewise sable, and argent a gridiron palewise of the fourth. The monstrous charge above the line of partition – also found in the Verbandsgemeinde arms – is a reference to the village's former allegiance to the Waldgraves and Rhinegraves and to its former inclusion in that noble house's high court region, for it is the charge that appeared in the court seal. The charge below
630-803: A donation document From Archbishop Wezilo . A manuscript from the late 18th century – kept at the archive of the Museum of Wasserburg-Anholt of the Prince of Salm-Salm in Isselburg -Anholt in Westphalia – is the only record of this. The original was a donation document whereby Wezilo granted Saint Christopher's Church at Ravengiersburg an estate in the village of Lindenschied and also three mansos in Runa und Crummenauwe in pago Nachgowe (“ oxgangs in Rhaunen and Krummenau in
756-528: A double-edged sword for Krummenau. On the one hand, traffic through the village has increased, but on the other hand, it has also increased tourism , for the road is quite scenic and affords good views of the valley. Despite opposition expressed at a citizens’ meeting in 1968 to having Krummenau transferred from the Bernkastel district to the Birkenfeld district, the state administrative reformers got their way and
882-451: A fee for the right to leave her lord, and in compensation for her lost labour. Often there were arbitrary tests to judge the worthiness of their tax payments. A chicken, for example, might be required to be able to jump over a fence of a given height to be considered old enough or well enough to be valued for tax purposes. The restraints of serfdom on personal and economic choice were enforced through various forms of manorial customary law and
1008-591: A few examples of European wildcat or even the Eurasian lynx . Red fox , European badgers and pine martens are more commonly encountered. The best known mammal in the Hunsrück has become the barbastelle . It achieved notoriety when the presence of this rare species of bat delayed construction on the runway extension at Hahn Airport. In the numerous wet areas, amphibians , like the fire salamander , and insects have found ideal habitats. Meanwhile, in areas covered by dry grassland or scree, numerous reptiles like
1134-410: A few years of crop failure, a war, or brigandage might leave a person unable to make his own way. In such a case, he could strike a bargain with a lord of a manor. In exchange for gaining protection, his service was required: in labour, produce, or cash, or a combination of all. These bargains became formalised in a ceremony known as "bondage", in which a serf placed his head in the lord's hands, akin to
1260-519: A full complement of labour to the lord, often forcing them to rent out their services to other serfs to make up for this hardship. Villeinage was not a purely uni-directional exploitative relationship. In the Middle Ages, land within a lord's manor provided sustenance and survival, and being a villein guaranteed access to land, and crops secure from theft by marauding robbers. Landlords, even were legally entitled to do so, rarely evicted villeins because of
1386-407: 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 and song birds may be seen at all times of the year. Even the rare and shy black stork nests in the forests. The Hunsrück is rich in mammals; red deer , roe deer and wild boar are intensively hunted. Larger predators include
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#17328907598821512-515: A knight or baron "fought for all" and a churchman "prayed for all"; thus everyone had a place (see Estates of the realm ). The serf was the worst fed and rewarded however, although unlike slaves had certain rights in land and property. A lord of the manor could not sell his serfs as a Roman might sell his slaves. On the other hand, if he chose to dispose of a parcel of land, the serfs associated with that land stayed with it to serve their new lord; simply speaking, they were implicitly sold in mass and as
1638-467: A man was a primary issue in determining a person's rights and obligations in many of the manorial court -cases of the period. Also, runaway slaves could be beaten if caught. The usual serf (not including slaves or cottars) paid his fees and taxes in the form of seasonally appropriate labour. Usually, a portion of the week was devoted to ploughing his lord's fields held in demesne , harvesting crops, digging ditches, repairing fences, and often working in
1764-551: A number of legal restrictions that differentiated them from the freeman. Within his constraints, a serf had some freedoms. Though the common wisdom is that a serf owned "only his belly" – even his clothes were the property, in law, of his lord – a serf might still accumulate personal property and wealth, and some serfs became wealthier than their free neighbours, although this happened rarely. A well-to-do serf might even be able to buy his freedom. A serf could grow what crop he saw fit on his lands, although
1890-429: A part of a lot. This unified system preserved for the lord long-acquired knowledge of practices suited to the land. Further, a serf could not abandon his lands without permission, nor did he possess a saleable title in them. A freeman became a serf usually through force or necessity. Sometimes the greater physical and legal force of a local magnate intimidated freeholders or allodial owners into dependency. Often
2016-421: A particularly heavy toll on the Hunsrück by felling an extraordinarily great number of trees. This was part of the war reparations imposed on Germany. In 1932 and 1933, there was a great roadbuilding project in Krummenau together with water supply and sewerage projects. The district road was built through the village at last, changing the village centre forever. The old bakehouse had to be torn down to make way for
2142-568: A patch of land. As part of the contract with the landlord , the lord of the manor, they were expected to spend some of their time working on the lord's fields. The rest of their time was spent farming their own land for their own profit. Villeins were tied to their lord's land and could not leave it without his permission. Their lord also often decided whom they could marry. Like other types of serfs, villeins had to provide other services, possibly in addition to paying rent of money or produce. Villeins could not move away without their lord's consent and
2268-434: A point that was not sustainable. This forced some of the poorer people to take the risk of emigrating . From 1846 to 1851, nobody emigrated, at least not with official approval. Thereafter, however, history mentions 13 emigrants from that time. In the last third of the 19th century, a few people from Krummenau moved to the industrial areas that had arisen by then, and the population began to shrink. In this time, Krummenau
2394-578: A representative of Emperor Dom Pedro I of Brazil, and visited the Hanseatic cities , Frankfurt and many of the German courts. This mission sparked the first major wave of German emigrants to Brazil . Many of them were recruited by Schäffer from the Hunsrück, the northern and western parts of present-day Saarland and the Western Palatinate . The first immigrants from the Hunsrück settled in 1824 in what
2520-503: A result of the increasing neglect and deprivation of parts of the population in Germany during the era of industrialization , an Inner 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,
2646-455: A serf's taxes often had to be paid in wheat. The surplus he would sell at market . The landlord could not dispossess his serfs without legal cause and was supposed to protect them from the depredations of robbers or other lords, and he was expected to support them by charity in times of famine . Many such rights were enforceable by the serf in the manorial court. Forms of serfdom varied greatly through time and regions. In some places, serfdom
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#17328907598822772-458: A source of agricultural labour . Serfdom, indeed, was an institution that reflected a fairly common practice whereby great landlords were assured that others worked to feed them and were held down, legally and economically, while doing so. This arrangement provided most of the agricultural labour throughout the Middle Ages . Slavery persisted right through the Middle Ages, but it was rare. In
2898-600: 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. Under Duke John II the town achieved supra-regional importance for a short time. After the Thirty 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
3024-468: Is Koblenz . As the Hunsrück proceeds east it acquires north-south width and three notable gaps in its southern ridges . In this zone are multi-branch headwaters including the Simmerbach ending at Simmertal 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 , the Idar Forest ,
3150-585: Is Gerd Böhnke. The German blazon reads: Schild durch einen blauen Balken geteilt, oben in Gold ein rotes Fabeltier mit einem Wolfskopf und weit geöffneten Schwingen belegt mit einem Wolfshaken. Unten in Silber ein schwarzer Rost. The municipality's arms might in English heraldic language be described thus: A fess azure between Or a monster with a wolf's head and eagle's body sans legs displayed gules, its breast charged with
3276-663: Is a heavily incised peneplain with elongated ridges in the south (the Hochwald , Idar Forest , Soonwald and Bingen Forest ). 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 the Hochwald at the Erbeskopf (816.32 m), the highest peak in the Hunsrück and in the Rhenish Massif west of the Rhine. It continues to
3402-859: Is a long, triangular, pronounced upland in Rhineland-Palatinate , Germany . It is bounded by the valleys of the Moselle-Saar (north-to-west), the Nahe (south), and the Rhine (east). It is continued by the Taunus mountains, past the Rhine and by the Eifel past the Moselle. To the south of the Nahe is a lower, hilly country forming the near bulk of the Palatinate region and all of the, smaller, Saarland . Below its north-east corner
3528-457: Is first recorded in English in the late 15th century, and came to its current definition in the 17th century. Serfdom was coined in 1850. Serfs had a specific place in feudal society, as did barons and knights : in return for protection, a serf would reside upon and work a parcel of land within the manor of his lord . Thus, the manorial system exhibited a degree of reciprocity. One rationale held that serfs and freemen "worked for all" while
3654-532: Is now the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul , near the city of São Leopoldo . Not until 1830 did the number of emigrants to Brazil begin to fall. 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 to North America and Brazil . In August 1846, it
3780-458: Is to this day a puzzle as to why this was done, for there were no military facilities in this part of the Idar Forest at this time. There may have been a link with the munitions offloading railway depot at Hochscheid, whose very existence may have led to the supposition that there was a munitions storage facility in the Idar Forest. There were five forestry workers in the danger zone at the time of
3906-561: The Bundeswehr . The depot contributed to the local economy as an employer, and a few local civilians were employed there as watchmen. The depot has since been converted into a storage facility for military replacement parts. Military manoeuvres, which were common throughout rural areas in the Bonn Republic , were also undertaken in the woods near Krummenau, and in 1963, there was a nasty accident. Some children from Krummenau who were playing in
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4032-514: The Early Middle Ages in Europe and lasted in some countries until the mid-19th century. Unlike slaves , serfs could not be bought, sold, or traded individually, though they could, depending on the area, be sold together with land. Actual slaves, such as the kholops in Russia, could, by contrast, be traded like regular slaves, could be abused with no rights over their own bodies, could not leave
4158-568: The Gravettian (ca. 30,000–20,000 B.C.) sites in Heddesheim (in the municipality of Guldental ) and Brey (in the municipality of Rhens ) are the first settlements in the area around the Hunsrück. Other significant sites include the rather more recent Old Stone Age site of Nußbaum near Bad Sobernheim and the encampment of Late Palaeolithic deer hunters in Boppard, which was first discovered in 2001 by
4284-715: The Late Neolithic and belong to the Michelsberg culture . Up to 2007, numerous oval stone axes were discovered, especially in the Fore-Hunsrück ( Morshausen , Beulich and Macken ). Likewise, finds of flint arrowheads point to a Late Neolithic ( inter alia at Bell ) and very Late Neolithic ( Hirzenach ) settlement. Other finds from the Bronze Age prove that there was continual settlement (especially documented by graves and grave goods). A greater process of settlement took place in
4410-555: The Middle French serf and was derived from the Latin servus ("slave"). In Late Antiquity and most of the Middle Ages, what are now called serfs were usually designated in Latin as coloni . As slavery gradually disappeared and the legal status of servi became nearly identical to that of the coloni , the term changed meaning into the modern concept of "serf". The word "serf"
4536-835: The Moselle river and in the east by the Rhine . Its northeasternmost tip is thus formed by the Deutsches Eck . The Nahe – on the edge of the Bingen Forest , the Soonwald and the Lützelsoon – borders the mountains to the south. The Lower Naheland is not part of the Hunsrück, but belongs to the Upper Rhine Plain . The Idar Forest , the Hochwald and the Wildenburger Kopf adjoin
4662-602: The Nine 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 the War 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
4788-622: The Schmiedel , was acquired. There, the first building was erected as a "mother house" ( Mutterhaus or domus materna ), which opened on 13 September 1851 with a householder and twelve boys. Even today, the head offices of the Schmiedel organization remain on the site. After the Franco-Prussian War of 1870/1871 and the foundation of the German Reich under Prussia 's leadership, the so-called Gründerzeit began. Its success did not impact
4914-407: The Soonwald , and the Bingen Forest . The highest mountain is the Erbeskopf (816 m; 2,677 ft), towards the region's south-west. Notable towns are Simmern , Kirchberg , and Idar-Oberstein , Kastellaun , and Morbach . Frankfurt-Hahn Airport is at the centre of the upland, equidistant between Mainz , Trier and Koblenz, co-named after the village of Hahn . Slate is still mined in
5040-704: The Trechirgau , the southern part to the Nahegau . The Trechirgau was managed by the so-called Bertholds , the Nahegau by the Emichones . The capital of the Trechirgau, Trigorium , was in Treis . The Hundesrucha is mentioned for the first time in a 1074 deed from Ravengiersburg Abbey . In the Middle Ages, the Hunsrück was territorially fragmented between the counts Palatine of
5166-406: The manor house . The remainder of the serf's time was spent tending his own fields, crops and animals in order to provide for his family. Most manorial work was segregated by gender during the regular times of the year. During the harvest , the whole family was expected to work the fields. A major difficulty of a serf's life was that his work for his lord coincided with, and took precedence over,
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5292-538: The slowworm and smooth snake have found a home. The viper does not occur in the Hunsrück. Finds such as stone axes indicate that the Hunsrück has been settled since the New Stone Age . Older discoveries, which prove that the area was either settled or crossed during the Old Stone Age , are rare. Middle Palaeolithic (ca. 200,000–400,000 B.C.) surface finds from Weiler bei Bingen are an exception. By contrast
5418-508: The 18th century, it is highly likely that Krummenau is older than 900 years anyway. The Romans could never feel altogether safe in the Hunsrück in what they called Germania Superior . Beginning in the mid 4th century AD, Germanic peoples were thronging into the region. Before the Franks cut a swath of destruction along their path and took the land along the Moselle and on the Hunsrück into their ownership about 475, Roman colonist families left
5544-572: The 20th-century life of a small fictional village in the Hunsrück. The electronic music festival Nature One is held at the Pydna missile base in Kastellaun . Serfdom Serfdom was the status of many peasants under feudalism , specifically relating to manorialism , and similar systems. It was a condition of debt bondage and indentured servitude with similarities to and differences from slavery . It developed during late antiquity and
5670-710: The ARRATA Archaeology Society. In 2014, Late Palaeolithic rock 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. The oldest witnesses from the New Stone Age are dated to no later than the Middle Neolithic , relics of the so-called Rössen culture (whose sites include Biebernheim and Reckershausen ). The majority of finds, especially of stone axes date, however, to
5796-668: The Abolition of Slavery also prohibits serfdom as a practice similar to slavery. Social institutions similar to serfdom were known in ancient times . The status of the helots in the ancient Greek city-state of Sparta resembled that of the medieval serfs. By the 3rd century AD, the Roman Empire faced a labour shortage. Large Roman landowners increasingly relied on Roman freemen, acting as tenant farmers, instead of slaves to provide labour. These tenant farmers , eventually known as coloni , saw their condition steadily erode. Because
5922-654: The Chinese Qing dynasty (1644–1912) as also maintaining a form of serfdom. Melvyn Goldstein described Tibet as having had serfdom until 1959, but whether or not the Tibetan form of peasant tenancy that qualified as serfdom was widespread is contested by other scholars. Bhutan is described by Tashi Wangchuk, a Bhutanese civil servant, as having officially abolished serfdom by 1959, but he believes that less than or about 10% of poor peasants were in copyhold situations. The United Nations 1956 Supplementary Convention on
6048-532: The County of the Nahegau ”). Such pious gestures to the church were not unusual in mediaeval Germany, but they did come with conditions. This particular donation, for instance, required the recipient to say a Mass each Friday for the donor's salvation and also to sing a Requiem for him when he died. There is some question as to whether the manuscript writer, J. G. F. Schott, falsified the document just so that he could earn money by selling it, but whatever happened in
6174-765: The Early Iron Age ( Hallstatt period ) with the Laufeld culture and in the La Tène period (5th– 1st century B.C.) with the Hunsrück-Eifel culture , which has been linked with the Celts . Examples of this culture include the coach grave of Bell, the Waldalgesheim prince's grave , the circular rampart of Otzenhausen , the Pfalzfeld obelisk , the upland settlement of Altburg in
6300-520: The French. Status-wise, the bordar or cottar ranked below a serf in the social hierarchy of a manor, holding a cottage , garden and just enough land to feed a family. In England, at the time of the Domesday Survey, this would have comprised between about 1 and 5 acres (0.4 and 2.0 hectares). Under an Elizabethan statute , the Erection of Cottages Act 1588 , the cottage had to be built with at least 4 acres (0.02 km ; 0.01 sq mi) of land. The later Enclosures Acts (1604 onwards) removed
6426-437: The Hahnenbach valley and the numerous fields of tumuli . At that time, the Hunsrück was the tribal area of the Treveri . Between about 50 BC and AD 400 the Romans opened up the Hunsrück by building a dense network of roads. The best known relic of this is the Via Ausonia . Numerous finds of Roman farms ( Villa Rustica ), settlements, like the vicus Belginum , and military structures point to an almost total settlement of
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#17328907598826552-459: 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 the Second World War and post-war period, two places in the Hunsrück rose to notoriety: Hinzert concentration camp and Bretzenheim POW camp , the so-called "Field of Misery". In 1946, most of the Hunsrück became part of the new state of Rhineland-Palatinate , with small elements around Nonnweiler going to
6678-508: 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 above sea level (NN) : Despite, in places, intensive agricultural or timber use,
6804-425: The Hunsrück in the late 18th century. In 1792, as a result of the French Revolution and the seizure of power by Napoleon , French troops once again invaded the territories west of the Rhine and annexed them during the French period . After the defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo in 1815, most of the Hunsrück was reallocated at the Congress of Vienna to Prussia 's Rhine Province . Parts of today's Birkenfeld and
6930-416: The Hunsrück region. They achieved this through the creation of dairy cooperatives , postal agencies and, in particular, through adult education . The First World War , the Occupation Period and inflation 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 of industrialisation in
7056-413: The Hunsrück remains a landscape with a biodiversity , 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 of ferns and flowers. The traditional forest monocultures are increasingly giving way, especially as a result of windthrow damage, to mixed woods , supporting
7182-423: The Hunsrück to the southwest. Here the Upper Nahe Hills rise in the shadow of the Hunsrück. The Osburger Hochwald , Schwarzwälder Hochwald and the rivers Saar and Ruwer form the western perimeter. Its southern continuation is formed by the Westrich and the North 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
7308-417: The Hunsrück until later, which is why many job seekers and even entire families went looking for work in the Ruhr area and migrated there. The Protestant pastor, later Prussian Landtag MP, Richard Oertel , founder of the Hunsrück Farmers' Union in 1892, and Albert Hackenberg , acting pastor in Hottenbach from 1879 to 1912, successfully worked to improve the economic, social and technological conditions in
7434-400: The Hunsrück was entrepreneur, Michael Felke . In 1919 he founded the Felke 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 the Siegfried Line , building
7560-429: The Hunsrück, a large part of it in Woppenroth , also known as Schabbach . In 2012, Reitz returned to the Hunsrück for the shooting of his film Die andere Heimat - Chronik einer Sehnsucht in the village of Gehlweiler . The film focuses on the Vormärz era in the mid-19th century and the waves of emigration from the Hunsrück to Brazil. The German television drama series Heimat , directed by Edgar Reitz , examined
7686-399: The NE as the Idar Forest with its highest peaks, An den zwei Steinen (766.2 m) and the Idarkopf (745.7 m). Its northeasternmost part is formed by the Soonwald (highest mountain: the Ellerspring , 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. – To the east of
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#17328907598827812-464: The Nazis as their party. With Hitler's seizure of power in 1933, terror was legalized and racism became a political principle. In Krummenau, unlike in many Hunsrück villages, the mayor, Adolf Zirfaß, was allowed to remain in office, while his peers elsewhere were removed by decree and replaced with mayors who were more receptive to the Nazis’ way of doing things. He held the office until 1945. The nearest Party Ortsgruppe , to which Krummenau belonged,
7938-470: The Prussian States in 1792 and finally abolished it in October 1807, in the wake of the Prussian Reform Movement . In Finland, Norway, and Sweden, feudalism was never fully established, and serfdom did not exist; in Denmark, serfdom-like institutions did exist in both stavn s (the stavnsbånd , from 1733 to 1788) and its vassal Iceland (the more restrictive vistarband , from 1490 until 1894). According to medievalist historian Joseph R. Strayer ,
8064-426: The Rhine , the archbishops of Trier , the counts of Sponheim and the successors of the Emichones (the Wildgraves , the Raugraves and the counts of Veldenz ). 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 the Principality of Simmern emerged as
8190-478: The Rhine the crest of the Hunsrück is continued by the Taunus . Geomorphologically the Hunsrück bears great similarities to the Eifel , the Taunus and the Westerwald , which are also part of the Rhenish Massif . The Hunsrück hill road runs from west to east from Saarburg to Koblenz . A Roman military road , the so-called Via Ausonia also once ran through the mountains in an east-west direction and linked Trier with Bingen . In many primary schools in
8316-449: The Saarland. During the Cold War until the early 1990s, the Hunsrück was home to numerous military airfields, ammunition dumps, command positions and missile sites. The most famous were Hahn Air Base , Pferdsfeld Air Base, the Börfink Command Bunker and the Pydna Missile Base . In 1986/87, as a result of the NATO Double-Track Decision , 96 cruise missiles , fitted with nuclear warheads , were to be stored at Pydna. On 11 Oct 1986, on
8442-462: The acceptance of the lord to whose manor they proposed to migrate to. Villeins were generally able to hold their own property, unlike slaves. Villeinage, as opposed to other forms of serfdom, was most common in Continental European feudalism, where land ownership had developed from roots in Roman law . A variety of kinds of villeinage existed in Europe in the Middle Ages. Half-villeins received only half as many strips of land for their own use and owed
8568-423: The area and withdrew along with Roman troops. Only the higher areas of the Hunsrück were left more or less untouched. A new settlement process began with farmsteads, clearings, village foundings and the division of the land into Gaue . Throughout the Middle Ages , the old Roman road and a “grey cross” at the crossing of this road with the path from Krummenau to Hirschfeld formed important reckoning points for
8694-557: The basic unit of feudal society, and the lord of the manor and the villeins , and to a certain extent the serfs, were bound legally: by taxation in the case of the former, and economically and socially in the latter. The decline of serfdom in Western Europe has sometimes been attributed to the widespread plague epidemic of the Black Death , which reached Europe in 1347 and caused massive fatalities, disrupting society. Conversely, serfdom grew stronger in Central and Eastern Europe , where it had previously been less common (this phenomenon
8820-407: The bombing, but nobody was wounded. As Germany's looming defeat in the war became ever more obvious, enthusiasm for the Nazi régime sank ever deeper. The Volkssturm was organized in March 1945 as a last-ditch effort, and two tank traps were built in Krummenau, but on the night of 16 March, German troops retreated through the village on their way to Rhaunen and the river Nahe . Soon thereafter, on
8946-422: The borders of the sovereign area to which Krummenau belonged. “ Aus dem kroen Kruytz in die Steynstraß immer dann die Steynstraß hin ” reads one of many border descriptions from 1509 (“From the grey cross onto the Stone Road and then always down the Stone Road”). Furthermore, a 1508 Weistum likewise mentions the “grey cross” as part of a border description (a Weistum – cognate with English wisdom –
9072-493: The ceremony of homage where a vassal placed his hands between those of his overlord . These oaths bound the lord and his new serf in a feudal contract and defined the terms of their agreement. Often these bargains were severe. A 7th-century Anglo Saxon "Oath of Fealty" states: By the Lord before whom this sanctuary is holy, I will to N. be true and faithful, and love all which he loves and shun all which he shuns, according to
9198-412: The church’s galleries, it is said, as well as the beams from the old Kroll house, torn down in 1977, were taken from the old monastery. The following table shows Krummenau’s population figures for selected dates since 1515: The council is made up of 6 council members, who were elected by majority vote at the municipal election held on 7 June 2009, and the honorary mayor as chairman. Krummenau's mayor
9324-631: The concept of feudalism can also be applied to the societies of ancient Persia , ancient Mesopotamia , Egypt from the late Old Kingdom through the Middle Kingdom ( Sixth to Twelfth dynasty ), Islamic-ruled Northern and Central India , China ( Zhou dynasty and end of Han dynasty ) and Japan during the Shogunate . Wu Ta-k'un argued that the Shang-Zhou fengjian were kinship estates, quite distinct from feudalism. James Lee and Cameron Campbell describe
9450-594: The cottars' right to any land: "before the Enclosures Act the cottager was a farm labourer with land and after the Enclosures Act the cottager was a farm labourer without land". The bordars and cottars did not own their draught oxen or horses. The Domesday Book showed that England comprised 12% freeholders, 35% serfs or villeins, 30% cotters and bordars, and 9% slaves. Smerdy were a type of serfs above kholops in Medieval Poland and Kievan Rus' . Kholops were
9576-424: The duties of serfdom, people bound themselves and their progeny. The social class of the peasantry can be differentiated into smaller categories. These distinctions were often less clear than suggested by their different names. Most often, there were two types of peasants: Lower classes of peasants, known as cottars or bordars , generally comprising the younger sons of villeins; vagabonds; and slaves, made up
9702-461: The first elections for the Bundestag was very low. It took a long while before all the German prisoners of war came home. One local man, Heinrich Bartenbach, did not get home until October 1949. Also arriving in Krummenau, as elsewhere in Germany, were refugees. The population had risen from 118 in 1948 to 129 in 1950. Town and city dwellers also came into the countryside seeking food. Beginning in
9828-796: The high court. In 1493, 1508 and 1558 it was the Waldgraves of Dhaun. The court passed in 1633 to the Dhauns, who had now become the Rhinegraves of Dhaun. Beginning in 1789, sovereign rights passed to the Princes of Salm-Salm. In each case, the villagers were under serfdom . Immediately affected by the French Revolutionary Wars in the late 18th century was the Hunsrück. Great havoc was wrought as French , Prussian and Austrian troops marched on through, taking their toll by demanding supplies and by encamping. The winter of 1794–1795 must have been hard for
9954-486: The land they were bound to, and could marry only with their lord 's permission. Serfs who occupied a plot of land were required to work for the lord of the manor who owned that land. In return, they were entitled to protection, justice, and the right to cultivate certain fields within the manor to maintain their own subsistence. Serfs were often required not only to work on the lord's fields, but also in his mines and forests and to labour to maintain roads. The manor formed
10080-498: The later Middle Ages, serfdom began to disappear west of the Rhine even as it spread through eastern Europe. Serfdom reached Eastern Europe centuries later than Western Europe – it became dominant around the 15th century. In many of these countries serfdom was abolished during the Napoleonic invasions of the early 19th century, though in some it persisted until mid- or late- 19th century. The word serf originated from
10206-503: The laws of God and the order of the world. Nor will I ever with will or action, through word or deed, do anything which is unpleasing to him, on condition that he will hold to me as I shall deserve it, and that he will perform everything as it was in our agreement when I submitted myself to him and chose his will. To become a serf was a commitment that encompassed all aspects of the serf's life. The children born to serfs inherited their status, and were considered born into serfdom. By taking on
10332-479: The line of partition, the gridiron, is Saint Lawrence ’s attribute, thus representing the church’s patron saint. The church was originally consecrated to him in 1086, although the current church is from 1747. The fess stands for the brook that flows through the village. The following are listed buildings or sites in Rhineland-Palatinate ’s Directory of Cultural Monuments: Hunsr%C3%BCck The Hunsrück ( German pronunciation: [ˈhʊnsʁʏk] )
10458-499: The local people as well as for the French soldiers, many of whom were ill. The French did not stay long in any one place, not even in the winter, preferring to move elsewhere in search of supplies once they had depleted those nearby. The local schoolteacher in Krummenau, Korb, recorded plundering in the village by French soldiers. The French swept the old feudal order away and the nobility was stripped of its powers and its holdings. Serfdom
10584-453: The lords of the high court, which as a high court had the power to hand down death sentences . On 29 September 1399, Johann and Friedrich, Waldgraves at Dhaun, enfeoffed Count Palatine Ruprecht (who the very next year became Rupert, King of Germany ) with the court and people at Krummenau, for which they received a charter of protection for this and other villages. In 1461 and 1469, the Waldgraves of Dhaun and Kyrburg were mentioned as lords of
10710-471: The lower class of workers. The colonus system of the late Roman Empire can be considered the predecessor of Western European feudal serfdom. Freemen, or free tenants , held their land by one of a variety of contracts of feudal land-tenure and were essentially rent-paying tenant farmers who owed little or no service to the lord, and had a good degree of security of tenure and independence. In parts of 11th-century England freemen made up only 10% of
10836-496: The lowest class of serfs in the medieval and early modern Russia. They had status similar to slaves, and could be freely traded. The last type of serf was the slave. Slaves had the fewest rights and benefits from the manor. They owned no tenancy in land, worked for the lord exclusively and survived on donations from the landlord. It was always in the interest of the lord to prove that a servile arrangement existed, as this provided him with greater rights to fees and taxes. The status of
10962-408: The manorial administration and court baron . It was also a matter of discussion whether serfs could be required by law in times of war or conflict to fight for their lord's land and property. In the case of their lord's defeat, their own fate might be uncertain, so the serf certainly had an interest in supporting his lord. Villeins had more rights and status than those held as slaves, but were under
11088-509: 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 a blacksmith in Rhaunensulzbach . Two of his sons were important entrepreneurs. Johann Nikolaus Stumm (1668-1743)
11214-520: 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
11340-456: The mid-1950s, the villagers’ economic situation improved generally, and the village's economic structure underwent a shift. Older buildings were modernized inside and out. Widespread rental accommodation leased by the Americans stationed here also brought such modern conveniences as sanitary facilities, electric cooking appliances and so forth. One loss for Krummenau was the old, stately Kroll house,
11466-504: 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 director Edgar Reitz shot the first part of his trilogy Heimat in
11592-506: The monarchy was abolished and the Great War came to an end with Germany's defeat. Four times Krummenau had to put up with German soldiers lodging in the village on their way home from the front. The village was choked with people, horses and carriages. The soldiers made themselves at home anywhere: on farms, in barns, in stables, in meadows. Only the odd Frenchman and American showed up in the village looking for food. Krummenau lost four men in
11718-468: The morning of 17 March, the Americans marched in from Trarbach and Wahlenau , but did not stay, moving onwards. There was luckily no fighting in the village, as there was in Schlierschied . For Krummenau, the war was over. Six men from Krummenau had fallen or gone missing. Krummenau was occupied by United States forces. Adolf Zirfaß asked to be released from his mayoral duties in early April 1945, but
11844-403: The mountains. Since 2010, the region has become one of Germany's major onshore wind power regions. Large wind farms are near Ellern and Kirchberg. Nature-based tourism is widespread. In 2015, a new national park was inaugurated. The pedestrian Geierlay suspension bridge opened in the same year. The climate sees mists that rise most mornings. More rain than the German average is caused by
11970-523: The northern Saarland belonged to the Oldenburg Principality 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 the year without a summer in 1816; grain prices rose rapidly and 1817 became a year of famine. In September 1822, the Brazilian government sent Georg Anton Schäffer to Germany to recruit mercenaries and colonists . He arrived in 1823, as
12096-533: The old rectory in Horbruch and were guarded by a man from that village. They were to be kept away from the locals, and were forbidden even to eat at the same table. Shortly after war broke out, the schoolroom was seized by the military authorities. Schooling was for a while held at a private house. School had been reduced to three days each week by 1941 because the teacher had to fill in for another in Weitersbach. School
12222-570: The peasant population, and in most of the rest of Europe their numbers were also small. Ministeriales were hereditary unfree knights tied to their lord, that formed the lowest rung of nobility in the Holy Roman Empire . A villein (or villain ) represented the most common type of serf in the Middle Ages. Villeins had more rights and higher status than the lowest serf, but existed under a number of legal restrictions that differentiated them from freemen. Villeins generally rented small homes, with
12348-576: The region by the Romans. The final years of the 4th century saw the decline and fall of the Western Roman Empire . The Franks conquered the Roman territories and began to divide them up. This was the start of the great western and central European empire of Francia . In the mid-8th century this was divided into gaus under Carolingian rule. The northern part of the present Hunsrück foreland belonged to
12474-433: The right to gather deadwood – an essential source of fuel – from their lord's forests. In addition to service, a serf was required to pay certain taxes and fees. Taxes were based on the assessed value of his lands and holdings. Fees were usually paid in the form of agricultural produce rather than cash. The best ration of wheat from the serf's harvest often went to the landlord. Generally hunting and trapping of wild game by
12600-427: The road. By 1929, the political situation in Germany had become ominous. The National Socialists under their leader Adolf Hitler were gaining in popularity, and this would soon usher in a new era. The National Socialist movement reached the Hunsrück rather later than it did other parts of Germany, namely about 1930. It appealed mainly to younger people. By 1932, a great deal of the Hunsrück's inhabitants had chosen
12726-413: The serfs on the lord's property was prohibited. On Easter Sunday the peasant family perhaps might owe an extra dozen eggs, and at Christmas, a goose was perhaps required, too. When a family member died, extra taxes were paid to the lord as a form of feudal relief to enable the heir to keep the right to till what land he had. Any young woman who wished to marry a serf outside of her manor was forced to pay
12852-471: The tax system implemented by Diocletian assessed taxes based on both land and the inhabitants of that land, it became administratively inconvenient for peasants to leave the land where they were counted in the census. Medieval serfdom really began with the breakup of the Carolingian Empire around the 10th century. During this period, powerful feudal lords encouraged the establishment of serfdom as
12978-422: The value of their labour. Villeinage was much preferable to being a vagabond, a slave, or an unlanded labourer. In many medieval countries, a villein could gain freedom by escaping from a manor to a city or borough and living there for more than a year; but this action involved the loss of land rights and agricultural livelihood, a prohibitive price unless the landlord was especially tyrannical or conditions in
13104-470: The village were unusually difficult. In medieval England, two types of villeins existed – villeins regardant that were tied to land and villeins in gross that could be traded separately from land. In England, the Domesday Book , of 1086, uses bordarii (bordar) and cottarii ( cottar ) as interchangeable terms, cottar deriving from the native Anglo-Saxon tongue whereas bordar derived from
13230-695: The war; they were either killed or missing in action . A new republican constitution brought Germany democracy, and the first election for the National Assembly on 19 January 1919 drew great interest in Krummenau. Sixty-nine votes were counted in the village: 44 for the Democrats, 11 for the Socialists and 14 for the Centrists. The French occupied the Rhineland, and thereby the Hunsrück too, until 1930. They took
13356-532: The whole Amt but for Lindenschied and Woppenroth was transferred to the Birkenfeld district in the Regierungsbezirk of Koblenz in 1970. The Amt administration in Rhaunen became a Verbandsgemeinde administration. A new building development was opened in Krummenau in 1983 called “In der Spießwiese”. It is far from certain whether there was ever a monastery at Krummenau, but according to oral tradition, there
13482-419: The woods found some ordnance in the forest that had been left behind by soldiers and lit some of the powder that they had gathered together from it. Nine-year-old Berthold Weiskopf sustained burns to both his hands and his face. The valley road to Bernkastel was finally opened in 1972, after first being proposed in 1920. Its construction required some realignment of roadways through Krummenau. One stretch of road
13608-512: The work (indeed, in 1915 school was out for 7½ months after the schoolteacher was conscripted ). The workload was eased somewhat by help from Russian and later also French and British prisoners of war , who were housed at the old schoolhouse, and guarded by a man from Horbruch. One of the Russians escaped. There were 10 prisoners of war in Krummenau in 1918. That same year, the Kaiser was overthrown,
13734-454: The work he had to perform on his own lands: when the lord's crops were ready to be harvested, so were his own. On the other hand, the serf of a benign lord could look forward to being well fed during his service; it was a lord without foresight who did not provide a substantial meal for his serfs during the harvest and planting times. In exchange for this work on the lord's demesne, the serfs had certain privileges and rights, including for example
13860-462: Was a smeltery owner and his sons, Johann Ferdinand, Friedrich Philipp and Christian Philipp Stumm , bought the Neunkirchen ironworks on 22 March 1806, part of today's Saarstahl AG. Johann Michael Stumm (1683-1747) was the founder of an organ building workshop . The notorious robbers, Johannes Bückler (known as Schinderhannes ) and Johann Peter Petri ( Black Peter ) brought insecurity to
13986-550: Was a legal pronouncement issued by men learned in law in the Middle Ages and early modern times). Even as late as 1711, a map marked a cross on the old Roman road at that spot, even though protocols from as early as 1461 had noted that it had long ceased to be there. There was, however, a “grey stone”. Krummenau belonged to the High Court Region of Rhaunen, within which the Waldgraves of Schmidtburg, later those of Dhaun, sat as
14112-697: Was abolished. A new administrative order was set up on the Rhine ’s left bank after the French Revolutionary model. Krummenau now belonged to the Department of Sarre , the arrondissement of Birkenfeld, the canton of Rhaunen and the Mairie (“Mayoralty”) of Rhaunen. In 1801, with the Treaty of Lunéville , the Rhineland officially became French territory and all French laws came into force. The Code civil des Français
14238-558: Was also only one bridge across the Idarbach/Altbach in the village centre, built of stone and dating most likely from 1806. Another bridge was eventually built in 1912. The schoolhouse was dedicated in 1913. The Bernkastel district was lucky enough to see work on its electrical supply begun at just the right time; it was far enough along before the outbreak of the First World War for there to be no need to suspend work. By 1915, it
14364-533: Was announced in Dunkirk , 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 to Algeria and settled in the villages of Stidia and Sainte-Léonie. Most of their descendants returned to France after the Algerian War in 1962. As
14490-681: Was in Horbruch. There was no open opposition to the Nazi régime in Krummenau. A few villagers were brave enough to continue business with Jews , as they had always done, even after the Nazis forbade it. It was also during the Third Reich – in 1935 – that Flurbereinigung was begun. This was, however, interrupted when the Second World War broke out. Once again, prisoners of war were detailed to work in Krummenau. They were French, and were housed at
14616-587: Was introduced in 1804. French rule was brought to an end in 1814 with the victory over Napoleon . At the Congress of Vienna the following year, the Rhineland was awarded to Prussia. Krummenau found itself in the Bürgermeisterei (“Mayoralty”) of Rhaunen in the Bernkastel district, which in turn was in the Regierungsbezirk of Trier. In Prussian times, the village's population began to swell, until it reached
14742-538: Was known as " second serfdom "). In Eastern Europe, the institution persisted until the mid-19th century. In Russia, serfdom gradually evolved from the usual European form to become de facto slavery, though it continued to be called serfdom. In the Austrian Empire , serfdom was abolished by the 1781 Serfdom Patent ; corvées continued to exist until 1848. Serfdom was abolished in Russia in 1861. Prussia declared serfdom unacceptable in its General State Laws for
14868-452: Was merged with or exchanged for various forms of taxation. The amount of labour required varied. In Poland, for example, it was commonly a few days per year per household in the 13th century, one day per week per household in the 14th century, four days per week per household in the 17th century, and six days per week per household in the 18th century. Early serfdom in Poland was mostly limited to
14994-532: Was not finished until the late 1960s. In the wake of the Second World War, the Allied occupiers established many military facilities in the Hunsrück, and Krummenau was affected by this process, too. The French built a munitions depot covering 127 ha of the Idar Forest, ten to twelve hectares of which lay within Krummenau's limits (the rest was in neighbouring Weitersbach). The depot was taken over in 1963/1964 by
15120-511: Was not replaced until August, when Otto Bonn was made commissary mayor. By this time, French forces had relieved the Americans of their occupational duties about a month earlier. In 1946, Krummenau became part of the then newly founded state of Rhineland-Palatinate . It was grouped into the Amt of Rhaunen, the district of Bernkastel and the Regierungsbezirk of Trier. Democracy was reintroduced after 12 years of Nazi dictatorship , but participation at
15246-514: Was not until 1915 that a system was introduced for this purpose. From one year to the next, Krummenau had to contribute ever greater amounts of grain and potatoes , as well as vegetables, straw , hay , oil-bearing crops, butter and eggs. It did not help matters that so many men were called into the forces to fight for the Kaiser ; the bulk of the work thus fell to women, children and the elderly. Schools gave schoolchildren time off classes to help with
15372-537: Was one called Saint Lawrence ’s here once, which stood until the Reformation was introduced in 1555. It is furthermore said that it was a popular pilgrimage site. The people of Laufersweiler , according to this oral tradition, have now stolen this monastery and it is now in Laufersweiler. The village church, built in 1747, supposedly stands across the street from where the monastery once was. The mighty oaken beams of
15498-460: Was rather literally off the beaten track. No road led through the village. The Rhaunen - Weitersbach - Horbruch sealed road ran by the village through the “Crummer-Wald” (forest), not through the village. Nevertheless, the villagers were expected to pay for the upkeep of the stretch near the village. There were dirt paths leading to nearby villages such as Wahlenau , Niederweiler and Laufersweiler , but they were only passable by freight cart. There
15624-472: Was reduced even further once the teacher himself was called upon for military service. It was irregular until 1946; for a while, children attended school in Horbruch. Beginning in 1944, the Hunsrück was subject to air raids . In March 1945, the Idar Forest was carpet-bombed by the Allies , with about 200 to 300 bombs falling within Krummenau's limits, mainly in the woods, damaging 10 to 12 hectares of forest. It
15750-491: Was straightened so that it no longer had two right angles in it, right near each other, and another stretch now goes through an underpass right in the village. The river also had to be channelled through a steel pipe (owing to a contingency that the planners had failed to foresee), and the old Bauernmühle (“Farmer’s Mill”) downstream from Krummenau had to be torn down to make way for the new road. The road's construction also involved blasting in several places. The road has been
15876-413: Was working. The neighbouring Simmern district, on the other hand, saw all preparations for such a project stop for the duration. The Mobilization Order on 1 August 1914 shook Krummenau badly, for nobody had seriously expected a war. The quiet village was thereafter affected more and more by the war. The problem of supplying food for the war effort had already been foreseen at the outbreak of the war, but it
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