Kirn is a town in the Bad Kreuznach district in Rheinland-Pfalz , Germany . It is the seat of the Verbandsgemeinde Kirner Land . Kirn is a middle centre serving an area on the Nahe and in the Hunsrück .
162-638: Kirn lies in a landscape characterized by the Nahe valley and the valley of the Hahnenbach, cut deeply into the Lützelsoon, roughly 10 km northeast of Idar-Oberstein and 30 km west of Bad Kreuznach . The valley floors are heavily settled in places, whereas the steep slopes in the higher areas are mostly bare of buildings and decked with forest. Rising up above the woodland canopy in many places are freestanding quartzite crags. Particularly striking among these are
324-581: A Jewish community until sometime between 1938 and 1942. Even as far back as the Middle Ages , there were Jews living in the town. The violent persecution that took place on 21 September 1287 (11 Tishri 5048 according to data in Siegmund Salfeld 's Das Martyrologium des Nürnberger Memorbuches ) saw the murder of six Jews in Kirn. This is believed, for it did after all happen in the same year, to have been linked to
486-788: A cadastral area within the town named Of dem Judenkirchof ( ' On the Jews' Churchyard ' ) in memory of an old Jewish graveyard. Between the 15th and 18th centuries, there were apparently no Jewish residents at all in Kirn. Only in 1693, during one of French King Louis XIV's occupations , is a Jewish inhabitant mentioned as being in town for a short while. From the mid 19th century, there were once again Jewish families living in Kirn. The number of Jewish inhabitants developed as follows: in 1843, there were none; in 1858, 5; in 1866, 45; in 1895, 104 (1.8% of all together 5,639 inhabitants). The Jews who had moved to town were by and large from smaller outlying places in
648-404: A century as a Progymnasium or a Realschule , before it was obtained by the town administration in 1938. The former monastery chapel now houses the council chamber. Belonging to the complex is a pavilion that originally stood in the extensive garden complex. Today the eight-sided building stands on the Hahnenbach's right bank at the marketplace. From the country house named “St. Johannisberg”
810-569: A century later. Many say that the Franks originally came from Pannonia and first inhabited the banks of the Rhine. Then they crossed the river, marched through Thuringia, and set up in each county district [ pagus ] and each city [ civitas ] longhaired kings chosen from their foremost and most noble family. The author of the Chronicle of Fredegar claimed that the Franks came originally from Troy and quoted
972-563: A city and its environs. Initially only in certain cities in western Gaul, in Neustria and Aquitaine, did the kings possess the right or power to call up the levy. The commanders of the local levies were always different from the commanders of the urban garrisons. Often the former were commanded by the counts of the districts. A much rarer occurrence was the general levy, which applied to the entire kingdom and included peasants ( pauperes and inferiores ). General levies could also be made within
1134-564: A document from Fulda Abbey . Archaeological finds from Celtic and Roman times (the remnants of a villa rustica were unearthed in the part of town known as " Über Nahe "), however, point to a considerably greater age than that. The name Kirn is believed to be of Celtic origin. In the Fulda document mentioned above, the town was named as Chira . The name likely derives from the Celtic kyr , meaning 'water'. Meant here, of course, would be
1296-571: A hill between the junction of the Nahe and the Glan , was founded at the beginning of the 8th century by Saint Disibod , an Irish missionary. Saint Hildegard of Bingen , a famous Christian mystic , also lived here for a while. Gemstone town Idar-Oberstein - The town is famous for its historic gemstone mines and related trades. Some of them are open to visitors. The German Gemstone Museum boasts many gemstone exhibits. Bad Kreuznach - The baths which give
1458-451: A joint holding of the Houses of Dhaun and Kyrburg. Despite its economic and ecclesiastical importance, Kirn had at its disposal since earliest times only a small municipal area, which even today has not changed. The vineyards strewn over the hills all about the town surely only provided for local demand. The scant, stony soils allowed no more than limited yields when farmed. Livestock raising, on
1620-485: A known military unit based on the Rhône . The Ripuarian territory on both sides of the Rhine thus became a central part of Merovingian Austrasia . This stretched to include Roman Germania Inferior (later Germania Secunda ), which included the original Salian and Ripuarian lands, and roughly equates to medieval Lower Lotharingia. It also included Gallia Belgica Prima (roughly medieval Upper Lotharingia), and further lands on
1782-594: A lasting impact on the use of Frank-related names for Western Europeans in many non-European languages. The name Franci was not a tribal name, but within a few centuries it had eclipsed the names of the original peoples who constituted the Frankish population. Following the precedents of Edward Gibbon and Jacob Grimm , the name of the Franks has been linked with the English adjective frank , originally meaning "free". There have also been proposals that Frank comes from
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#17328515773451944-631: A lively market centre. Still preserved today, alongside the flea markets held on the first Monday of each month, are two prominent markets: the Andreasmarkt – which celebrated its 300th anniversary in 2000 – on the last weekend in November, and the Thomasmarkt on the second Saturday in December. These markets are quite a boon for Kirn in that they always draw many visitors from the surrounding region. At
2106-615: A mare's value was the same as that of an ox or of a shield and spear, two solidi and a stallion seven or the same as a sword and scabbard, which suggests that horses were relatively common. Perhaps the Byzantine writers considered the Frankish horse to be insignificant relative to the Greek cavalry, which is probably accurate. The Frankish military establishment incorporated many of the pre-existing Roman institutions in Gaul, especially during and after
2268-472: A militarised nature. The Franks called annual meetings every Marchfeld (1 March), when the king and his nobles assembled in large open fields and determined their targets for the next campaigning season. The meetings were a show of strength on behalf of the monarch and a way for him to retain loyalty among his troops. In their civil wars, the Merovingian kings concentrated on the holding of fortified places and
2430-444: A postglacial warm period to Europe but became extinct in most regions when the climate changed again to significantly cooler and more humid conditions. They only survived in small but still warm and dry places due to special geographic situations. In the Nahe valley and its tributaries these are mostly rocky precipices towards South or South-East, furthermore sunny slopes with shrubs, bushes and dry broad-leaved forests. On hot summer days
2592-592: A replacement of the defensive complexes was undertaken. In 1734, the stronghold was once again under French occupation, and in the course of the War of the Polish Succession , it was blown up. The ruin thereafter served the townsfolk as a stone quarry. In 1764, Prince Johann Dominik had the garrison house built, which nowadays houses the Restaurant Kyrburg , and in the cellar , the well known whisky museum . In 1908,
2754-489: A schoolteacher and a cantor and worked as such from 1908 to 1939 in Kirn (and before that in Leutershausen [Bergstraße], among other places). As at 30 September 2013, there are 8,220 full-time residents in Kirn, and of those, 4,180 are Evangelical (50.852%), 2,152 are Catholic (26.18%), 2 are Greek Orthodox (0.024%), 2 are Jehovah's Witnesses (0.024%), 1 is Lutheran (0.012%), 1 is Old Catholic (0.012%), 2 belong to
2916-471: A steep cliff nearby with a height of 202 metres (663 ft) and a length of 1,200 metres (3,900 ft) was formed by the Nahe. Bad Sobernheim - The open-air museum of Rhineland-Palatinate in Bad Sobernheim has an exhibition four traditional villages with refurbished historic houses from different regions of Rhineland-Palatinate. The region is accessible via federal highway B41 which is connected to
3078-617: A tightly bordered area around the town. Great parts of the market town were held during the High Middle Ages by Saint Maximin's Abbey in Trier , which also held the market rights. In 926, the Abbey gave three Frankish noblemen by way of exchange a hill suitable for use as a fortification, and they proceeded to build a castle there to defend their holdings against the Magyars . It came to be known as
3240-509: A western European people during the Roman Empire and Middle Ages . They began as a Germanic people who lived near the Lower Rhine , on the northern continental frontier of the empire. They subsequently expanded their power and influence during the Middle Ages , until much of the population of western Europe, particularly in and near France , were commonly described as Franks, for example in
3402-762: Is a starting point for the Hunsrück Schiefer- und Burgenstraße (“Hunsrück Slate and Castle Road”), the Soonwaldsteig ( hiking trail), the Keltenweg Nahe–Mosel (likewise) and the Lützelsoon-Radweg ( cycle path), as well as being a stage on the Nahe-Hunsrück-Mosel-Radweg (another cycle path). The following clubs are active in Kirn: Given its central geographical location, Kirn was always
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#17328515773453564-539: Is an outstanding view, dominated as it is by the Hellberg, the biggest stone run north of the Alps . Although it is in an area where stone has long been quarried, it is a natural formation made up of weathered stone. The stones slowly slide down the slope over time. Quarrying is not allowed, as the Hellberg lies within a conservation area. Beginning in the early 1870s there was a Jewish prayer room in Kirn. Rented for this purpose
3726-443: Is both habitual and a national custom and they are proficient in this. At the hip they wear a sword and on the left side their shield is attached. They have neither bows nor slings, no missile weapons except the double edged axe and the angon which they use most often. The angons are spears which are neither very short nor very long. They can be used, if necessary, for throwing like a javelin , and also in hand to hand combat . In
3888-457: Is generally believed to mean 'The Chamavi who are Franks' (despite the letter p). Further up the river the word "Francia" is clearly marked, indicating a country name on the bank opposite to Nijmegen and Xanten . The Salians were first mentioned by Ammianus Marcellinus , who described Julian 's defeat of "the first Franks of all, those whom custom has called the Salians", in 358. Julian allowed
4050-399: Is not reachable to visitors all the way down to the lowest crags. The ruins can, however, be seen quite well from the road. Today's town hall was built in the years from 1752 to 1771. The master builder Johann Thomas Petri built here, once again on Prince Dominik's orders, a Piarist monastery , which was nevertheless used as such for only a few years. The building later served for more than
4212-475: Is now France. He and his son Clovis I founded the Merovingian dynasty which succeeded in unifying most of Gaul under its rule during the 6th century following the collapse of the Western Roman Empire, as well as establishing leadership over all the Frankish kingdoms on or near the Rhine frontier. The dynasty subsequently gained control over a significant part of what is now western and southern Germany. It
4374-419: Is now a leisure basin with a slide, a flow channel and massage couches as well as a wading pool with a little slide. The Kirn town library has been housed since January 2002 at Wilhelm-Dröscher-Haus on the Hahnenbach's left bank. On a floor area of 145 m, some 5,800 books are available to readers. Thematic specialization involves, besides belles lettres , mainly children's and youth literature . Kirn
4536-586: Is on the River Danube , settling near the Sea of Azov . There they founded a city called Sicambria. (The Sicambri were the most well-known tribe in the Frankish homeland in the time of the early Roman empire, still remembered though defeated and dispersed long before the Frankish name appeared.) The Trojans joined the Roman army in accomplishing the task of driving their enemies into the marshes of Mæotis, for which they received
4698-541: Is rather low, falling below average for the precipitation chart for all Germany. Kirn lies alee of the surrounding uplands. The driest months are January and February. The most rainfall comes in August. Rainfall is, however, rather evenly spread across the whole year. Fog is very common for the colder season. The town of Kirn can look back on a very long history. It was founded at a river crossing near which several roads met. On 20 May 841, Kirn had its first documentary mention in
4860-685: Is that ferocity of yours? Where is that ever untrustworthy fickleness?"). Latin feroces was used often to describe the Franks. Contemporary definitions of Frankish ethnicity vary both by period and point of view. The formulary of Marculf written about 700 AD described a continuation of national identities within a mixed population when it stated that "all the peoples who dwell (in the official's province), Franks, Romans, Burgundians and those of other nations, live ... according to their law and their custom." Writing in 2009, Professor Christopher Wickham pointed out that "the word 'Frankish' quickly ceased to have an exclusive ethnic connotation. North of
5022-596: Is their head offices. Because such a great deal of the production has been shifted to countries where wages are low, very few people are now employed in the leather industry in Kirn itself. World-famous among what little is left of the industry are the Müller & Meirer Lederwarenfabrik GmbH (locally known as “Müller Hein” and its products marketed under the name Maître) and the Braun GmbH & Co. KG (local name and marketing brand: Braun Büffel). Throughout Rhineland-Palatinate ,
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5184-519: The Augustan History , a collection of biographies of the Roman emperors . None of these sources presents a detailed list of which tribes or parts of tribes became Frankish, or concerning the politics and history, but to quote James (1988 , p. 35): A Roman marching-song joyfully recorded in a fourth-century source, is associated with the 260s; but the Franks' first appearance in a contemporary source
5346-706: The Strategikon , supposedly written by the emperor Maurice , or in his time, the Franks are lumped together with the Lombards under the heading of the "fair-haired" peoples. If they are hard pressed in cavalry actions, they dismount at a single prearranged sign and line up on foot. Although only a few against many horsemen, they do not shrink from the fight. They are armed with shields, lances, and short swords slung from their shoulders. They prefer fighting on foot and rapid charges. [...] Either on horseback or on foot they are impetuous and un- disciplined in charging, as if they were
5508-561: The Bad Kreuznach district are represented in Kirn in the fields of mechanics , commerce and industry, home economics, economics and administration. The programmes offered by the folk high school and the music school round out Kirn's educational offerings. Medical services are supplied by the hospital run by the kreuznacher diakonie (always written with lowercase initials), many general and specialized healthcare professionals who have located in town and five pharmacies . For seniors,
5670-654: The Battle of Tertry in 687, each mayor of the palace , who had formerly been the king's chief household official, effectively held power until in 751, with the approval of the Pope and the nobility, Pepin the Short deposed the last Merovingian king Childeric III and had himself crowned. This inaugurated a new dynasty, the Carolingians . The unification achieved by the Merovingians ensured
5832-671: The Battle of Vouillé , he established Frankish hegemony over most of Gaul, excluding Burgundy , Provence and Brittany , which were eventually absorbed by his successors. By the 490s, he had conquered all the Frankish kingdoms to the west of the River Maas except for the Ripuarian Franks and was in a position to make the city of Paris his capital. He became the first king of all Franks in 509, after he had conquered Cologne. Clovis I divided his realm between his four sons, who united to defeat Burgundy in 534. Internecine feuding occurred during
5994-557: The Department of Rhin-et-Moselle . Kirn now became a town lying in the southwesternmost part of its department, thus cleaving it asunder from many of the formerly Salm-held areas that had once fed its economy. When the decisions made at the Congress of Vienna in 1814 and 1815 began to be implemented locally in 1817, things got even worse for Kirn as it was assigned to the Kreuznach district. To
6156-648: The First World War , the runaway inflation and the Great Depression . Already in the 1920s and 1930s, many enterprises felt forced to restructure their production. New businesses came that contributed once again to a rise in Kirn's economic importance, and in the field of finishing small leather goods, to a rise in the town's prestige. After the Second World War , there was another economic upswing, which brought along with it more population growth. Beginning in
6318-584: The Handwerker- und Bauernmarkt (“Craftsmen’s and Farmers’ Market”) in October, small businesses from the Kirn area present their handmade wares and offer them for sale. There is also a Wochenmarkt (weekly market – which despite this name is held twice weekly) on Wednesdays and Saturdays. Kirn once earned itself countrywide fame as the “Town of Leather”. Most of the tanneries and leather-finishing plants of yore are now long gone, and all that remains of them in town
6480-621: The Kyrburg . It seems that these noblemen's castle had passed by 966 to the rising family of the Emichones / Waldgraves . In the time that followed, these new owners bit by bit did the Abbey out of its rights, leaving it only with the market rights. In the 11th or 12th century, the rights to the market were transferred to the Lords of Stein, whose seat was on the "stones" ( Stein means ' stone ' in German ) in
6642-558: The Nahe and the Hahnenbach, which empties into it here, whose water apparently gave the town its name. The Nahe served then as an important transport route as well as supplying water for livestock and fish for people. The first settlement is believed to have lain on the bank of the Kyrbach (another name for the Hahnenbach although, strictly speaking, it designates only the Hahnenbach's headstream some distance upstream from Kirn), in an area today bordered by Gerbergasse and Langgasse (lanes), with
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6804-471: The Quaternary , the geologically latest period, as a result of ground heaving of the surrounding mountains of Hunsrück and North Palatine Uplands. This led to a steep decline of all waters and hence to strong erosion activities. Particularly strong erosion occurred in warmer melting periods during the ice ages, when tundra climate reigned, and the soil was not protected by a dense cover of vegetation. Depending on
6966-649: The River Loire everyone seems to have been considered a Frank by the mid-7th century at the latest (except Bretons ); Romani (Romans) were essentially the inhabitants of Aquitaine after that". Apart from the History of the Franks by Gregory of Tours , two early sources relate the mythological origin of the Franks: a 7th-century work known as the Chronicle of Fredegar and the anonymous Liber Historiae Francorum , written
7128-574: The Salian Franks to the west, who came south via the Rhine delta ; and the Ripuarian or Rhineland Franks to the east, who eventually conquered the Roman frontier city of Cologne and took control of the left bank of the Lower Rhine in that region. Childeric I , a Salian Frankish king, was one of several military leaders commanding Roman forces with various ethnic affiliations in the northern part of what
7290-538: The Somme river . Chlodio is often seen as an ancestor of the future Merovingian dynasty. Childeric I , who according to Gregory of Tours was a reputed descendant of Chlodio, was later seen as administrative ruler over Roman Belgica Secunda and possibly other areas. Records of Childeric show him to have been active together with Roman forces in the Loire region, quite far to the south. His descendants came to rule Roman Gaul all
7452-677: The Tyrol and the Engadin . These immigrants and their offspring quickly became a force not only in the town's economy but also in its cultural life. From the Family Englisch, who had come from the Davos area, sprang the painter Johann Georg Englisch (1668-1741), who did paintings in many churches over a broad area, and Johann Bernhard Englisch (1709-1768), who as a much sought-after ébéniste plied his trade as far away as Lake Geneva . The latter half of
7614-471: The castle had its first documentary mention. It was originally a fief held by the Lords of Stein, later called the Lords of Steinkallenfels, who died out in 1778. Beginning in the 14th century, it was a jointly held castle. As long ago as 1615, the castle was described as being in a state of disrepair. Eventually, in either 1682 or 1684, it was blown up by the French and has been a ruin ever since. The castle uses
7776-453: The dyers , too, settled along the flat bank of the Hahnenbach. The later tanners' quarter between Gerbergasse and the Nahe only arose in modern times. Their products were marketed by both local people and those from farther afield, mainly at the four great yearly markets and the weekly markets. The houses around the marketplace had on their ground floors recesses in which local handicraftsmen would offer their wares for sale in their “shops”. On
7938-550: The 17th century, though, brought Kirn many occupations in connection with French King Louis XIV's wars of conquest. The town sometimes had to put up with (and supply) years-long occupations. This period ended with the Kyrburg's destruction in 1734, an event that the townsfolk surely also welcomed. After the House of Salm died out, the lordship over the Oberamt of Kirn and the half share of
8100-460: The 1960s, it was clear that another restructuring was needed. Since that time, no more tanning has been done in Kirn and even the small leather goods industry found itself undergoing changes. Instead of leather, plastic goods are now produced. With the amalgamation of the villages of Kallenfels and Kirnsulzbach in 1969, the population rose for a time above 10,000, only to shrink later on. Today, somewhat more than 8,000 people call Kirn home. Kirn had
8262-513: The 1990s, the graveyard was desecrated several times. It lies on Kallenfelser Straße right next to the municipal ( Christian ) graveyard. The Jewish graveyard actually comprises the north corner of the municipal graveyard, but lies outside the graveyard wall. At the community hall ( Gesellschaftshaus ), which was built in 1879 by the leather company of Carl Simon & Söhne in the Classicist style, concert , cabaret and theatrical events are held
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#17328515773458424-603: The 260s, the armies under the Germanic Batavian Postumus revolted and proclaimed him emperor and then restored order. From then on, Germanic soldiers in the Roman army, most notably Franks, were promoted from the ranks. A few decades later, the Menapian Carausius created a Batavian–British rump state on Roman soil that was supported by Frankish soldiers and raiders. Frankish soldiers such as Magnentius , Silvanus , Ricomer and Bauto held command positions in
8586-408: The 450s and 460s, Childeric I , a Salian Frank, was one of several military leaders commanding Roman forces with various ethnic affiliations in Roman Gaul (roughly modern France). Childeric and his son Clovis I faced competition from the Roman Aegidius as competitor for the "kingship" of the Franks associated with the Roman Loire forces (according to Gregory of Tours , Aegidius held the kingship of
8748-400: The Bad Kreuznach district. Kirn's Stadtteile are the main centre, also called Kirn, and the two outlying centres of Kallenfels and Kirn-Sulzbach . Also belonging to Kirn are the outlying homesteads of Akvas Papiermühle, Cramersmühle, Füllmannsmühle, Hasenfels, Kallenfelser Hof, Kyrburg, Ölmühle Spielmann and Schleif-Mühle. Yearly precipitation in Kirn amounts to some 540 mm, which
8910-429: The Byzantine historians do not assign them to the Franks. The evidence of Gregory and of the Lex Salica implies that the early Franks were a cavalry people. In fact, some modern historians have hypothesised that the Franks possessed so numerous a body of horses that they could use them to plough fields and thus were agriculturally technologically advanced over their neighbours. The Lex Ribuaria specifies that
9072-469: The Frankish realm. Chief among these was the standing army under the command of the Patrician of Burgundy . In the late 6th century, during the wars instigated by Fredegund and Brunhilda , the Merovingian monarchs introduced a new element into their militaries: the local levy . A levy consisted of all the able-bodied men of a district who were required to report for military service when called upon, similar to conscription . The local levy applied only to
9234-413: The Franks for 8 years while Childeric was in exile). This new type of kingship, perhaps inspired by Alaric I , represents the start of the Merovingian dynasty which succeeded in conquering most of Gaul in the 6th century, as well as establishing its leadership over all the Frankish kingdoms on the Rhine frontier. Aegidius died in 464 or 465. Childeric and his son Clovis I were both described as rulers of
9396-403: The Franks fought primarily as a tribe, unless they were part of a Roman military unit fighting in conjunction with other imperial units. The primary sources for Frankish military custom and armament are Ammianus Marcellinus , Agathias and Procopius, the latter two Eastern Roman historians writing about Frankish intervention in the Gothic War . Writing of 539, Procopius says: At this time
9558-425: The Franks knew little about their background and that they may have felt some inferiority in comparison with other peoples of antiquity who possessed an ancient name and glorious tradition. [...] Both legends are of course equally fabulous for, even more than most barbarian peoples, the Franks possessed no common history, ancestry, or tradition of a heroic age of migration. Like their Alemannic neighbours, they were by
9720-447: The Franks to remain in Texuandria as fœderati within the Empire, having moved there from the Rhine-Maas delta. The 5th century Notitia Dignitatum lists a group of soldiers as Salii . Some decades later, Franks in the same region, possibly the Salians, controlled the River Scheldt and were disrupting transport links to Britain in the English Channel . Although Roman forces managed to pacify them, they failed to expel
9882-423: The Franks, hearing that both the Goths and Romans had suffered severely by the war ... forgetting for the moment their oaths and treaties ... (for this nation in matters of trust is the most treacherous in the world), they straightway gathered to the number of one hundred thousand under the leadership of Theudebert I and marched into Italy: they had a small body of cavalry about their leader, and these were
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#173285157734510044-418: The Franks, who continued to be feared as pirates. The Salians are generally seen as the predecessors of the Franks who pushed southwestwards into what is now modern France, who eventually came to be ruled by the Merovingians (see below). This is because when the Merovingian dynasty published the Salian law ( Lex Salica ) it applied in the Neustrian area from the river Liger ( Loire ) to the Silva Carbonaria ,
10206-540: The Germanic word for " javelin " (such as in Old English franca or Old Norse frakka ). Words in other Germanic languages meaning "fierce", "bold" or "insolent" (German frech , Middle Dutch vrac , Old English frǣc and Old Norwegian frakkr ) may also be significant. Eumenius addressed the Franks in the matter of the execution of Frankish prisoners in the circus at Trier by Constantine I in 306 and certain other measures: Ubi nunc est illa ferocia? Ubi semper infida mobilitas? ("Where now
10368-478: The Hahnenbach valley above what is now Kirn's outlying centre of Kallenfels. The Lords of Stein-Kallenfels were able to assert these rights until the 18th century, defending them first against the Waldgraves and later against their successors. West of the market centre arose another settlement in the years that followed, obviously founded by the Waldgraves, which was called Altstadt ( ' Old Town ' ), and for which town rights were being sought, as it were, to take
10530-564: The Jewish community was forced to sell the synagogue property for 5,358 ℛℳ . In connection with the restitution proceedings in 1950, a further payment of 4,000 DM was made. That same year, the building was torn down. A cinema was built there instead. A memorial has recalled the fate of the town's Jewish community and its synagogue since 9 November 1988 – the fiftieth anniversary of Kristallnacht. This can be found on Steinweg between Neue Straße and Langgasse. Another memorial plaque dating from earlier – 1978 – can be found at
10692-403: The Kallenfels with a square keep , but there is no access to this site. Highest up sits the castle Stein, which with its neck ditch , gate tower , bastions , shield wall and five-sided keep set back from the side of any expected attack. The three castles were joined together by defensive passages, of which only a few remnants have been preserved. The complex is now under private ownership, and
10854-518: The Nazis. On Kristallnacht (9–10 November 1938), the synagogue's interior was utterly destroyed by Brownshirt thugs, and perhaps worse, 13 Jewish homes were also invaded and demolished. Nevertheless, there were still 39 Jewish inhabitants in Kirn in 1939. The last eleven Jewish inhabitants were deported to the camps in July 1942. According to the Gedenkbuch – Opfer der Verfolgung der Juden unter der nationalsozialistischen Gewaltherrschaft in Deutschland 1933-1945 ("Memorial Book – Victims of
11016-435: The Oberhauser Felsen, the Kallenfels and the Wehlenfelsen north of the town. Flowing through the unhurried inner town is the Hahnenbach, which rises in the Hunsrück , and not too much farther downstream empties into the Nahe. Also characterizing the town's appearance is the quarry up from the town centre, which stretches eastwards all the way to the town limit. Kirn's municipal area measures 16.53 km, and by percentages,
11178-460: The Palatinate State Free Religious Community (0.024%), 1 is Reformed (0.012%), 1 is Old-Reformed (0.012%), 7 are Russian Orthodox (0.085%), 1 belongs to the Frankfurt Jewish worship community (0.012%), 481 (5.852%) belong to other religious groups and 1,389 (16.898%) either have no religion or will not reveal their religious affiliation. The council is made up of 24 council members, who were elected by personalized proportional representation at
11340-405: The Persecution of the Jews under National Socialist Tyranny ") and Yad Vashem , of all Jews who either were born in Kirn or lived there for a long time, 50 were victims of Nazi persecution (birthdates in brackets): Bernhard Weil, third from the bottom in the list and also mentioned earlier, was born on 19 June 1868 in Eichstetten to Isaak Weil and Pauline née Rotschild. He had himself trained as
11502-436: The Pious . Following Louis the Pious's death, however, according to Frankish culture and law that demanded equality among all living male adult heirs, the Frankish Empire was now split between Louis' three sons. Germanic peoples, including those tribes in the Rhine delta that later became the Franks, are known to have served in the Roman army since the days of Julius Caesar . After the Roman administration collapsed in Gaul in
11664-542: The Rhine became so frequent that the Romans began to settle the Franks on their borders in order to control them. The Franks appear to be mentioned in the Tabula Peutingeriana , an atlas of Roman roads . (It is a 13th-century copy of a 4th or 5th century document that reflects information from the 3rd century.) Several tribal names are written at the mouth of the Rhine. One of these says Hamavi; Quietpranci , which
11826-590: The Roman Province of Belgica Secunda , by its spiritual leader in the time of Clovis, Saint Remigius . Clovis later defeated the son of Aegidius, Syagrius , in 486 or 487 and then had the Frankish king Chararic imprisoned and executed. A few years later, he killed Ragnachar , the Frankish king of Cambrai, and his brothers. After conquering the Kingdom of Soissons and expelling the Visigoths from southern Gaul at
11988-424: The Roman army during the mid 4th century. From the narrative of Ammianus Marcellinus it is evident that both Frankish and Alamannic tribal armies were organised along Roman lines. After the invasion of Chlodio , the Roman armies at the Rhine border became a Frankish "franchise" and Franks were known to levy Roman-like troops that were supported by a Roman-like armour and weapons industry. This lasted at least until
12150-455: The Salians they appear in Roman records both as raiders and as contributors to military units. Unlike the Salii, there is no record of when, if ever, the empire officially accepted their residence within its borders. They eventually succeeded to hold the city of Cologne, and at some point seem to have acquired the name Ripuarians, which may have meant "river people". In any case a Merovingian legal code
12312-474: The archaeological evidence. The Lex Ribuaria , the early 7th century legal code of the Rhineland or Ripuarian Franks, specifies the values of various goods when paying a wergild in kind; whereas a spear and shield were worth only two solidi , a sword and scabbard were valued at seven, a helmet at six, and a "metal tunic" at twelve. Scramasaxes and arrowheads are numerous in Frankish graves even though
12474-511: The banks of the Danube and the Ocean Sea. Again splitting into, two groups, half of them entered Europe with their king Francio. After crossing Europe with their wives and children they occupied the banks of the Rhine and not far from the Rhine began to build the city of "Troy" (Colonia Traiana-Xanten). According to historian Patrick J. Geary , those two stories are "alike in betraying both the fact that
12636-660: The bread out of the market town's mouth. Town rights, though, were forthcoming to neither the Kyr settlement nor the Altstadt , even though the settlement on the Hahnenbach, beginning in 1335, was time and again in documents being called Stadt ( ' town ' ). Both the market centre and the Old Town were at least partly fortified . The names of the gates that stood at the ends of the thoroughfares ( Kellenpforte, Karschpforte, Nahepforte, Schülerpforte, Kieselpforte ) are known. The last town gate
12798-530: The castle complex past into the ownership of the Princes of Salm-Salm; since 1988, it has been owned by the town of Kirn. As an outdoor stage, the ruin offers a dramatic backdrop for cultural events. In the past, several operas have been staged there (mainly ones by Giuseppe Verdi ). It is also a venue for plays, concerts and celebrations. Steinkallenfels (also written “Stein-Kallenfels”) is yet another hill castle ruin in Kirn, this one in outlying Kallenfels. In 1158,
12960-524: The church served both Protestants and Catholics as a simultaneous church . During this time, a wall split of the Protestant section of the church from the sanctuary, which was reserved for the Catholics. After the frightful flood of 1875, new building was required at the church. As a result of this, the Catholics thought it best to build themselves their own church on Halmer Weg. The princely winery building
13122-441: The conquests of Clovis I in the late 5th and early 6th centuries. Frankish military strategy revolved around the holding and taking of fortified centres ( castra ) and in general these centres were held by garrisons of milities and laeti , who were descendants of Roman soldiers with Germanic origin, granted a quasi-national status under Frankish law. These milites continued to be commanded by tribunes. Throughout Gaul,
13284-521: The context of their joint efforts during the Crusades starting in the 11th century. A key turning point in this evolution was when the Frankish Merovingian dynasty based within the collapsing Western Roman Empire first became the rulers of the whole region between the rivers Loire and Rhine . From this starting point they imposed power over many other post-Roman kingdoms both inside and outside
13446-473: The continuation of what has become known as the Carolingian Renaissance . The Carolingian Empire was beset by internecine warfare, but the combination of Frankish rule and Roman Christianity ensured that it was fundamentally united. Frankish government and culture depended very much upon each ruler and his aims and so each region of the empire developed differently. Although a ruler's aims depended upon
13608-475: The course of the Nahe. For instance can be mentioned the "Hellberg" near Kirn , the "Flachsberg" near Martinstein , the "Heimberg" near Waldböckelheim , the "Gangelsberg" near Duchroth and the "Rotenfels" as well as the "Rheingrafenstein" near Bad Münster am Stein . The Nahe region offers various tourist attractions: Nahe cycling route – The route leads along the river from its spring to its entry. Nahe wine region – The wine-producing area surrounding
13770-467: The date of the beginning of the conquest of Gaul. The Byzantine authors present several contradictions and difficulties. Procopius denies the Franks the use of the spear while Agathias makes it one of their primary weapons. They agree that the Franks were primarily infantrymen, threw axes and carried a sword and shield. Both writers also contradict the authority of Gallic authors of the same general time period ( Sidonius Apollinaris and Gregory of Tours ) and
13932-453: The days of the scholar Procopius (c. 500 – c. 565), more than a century after the demise of the Western Roman Empire, who wrote describing the former Arborychoi , having merged with the Franks, retaining their legionary organization in the style of their forefathers during Roman times. The Franks under the Merovingians melded Germanic custom with Romanised organisation and several important tactical innovations. Before their conquest of Gaul,
14094-491: The descendants of Roman soldiers continued to wear their uniforms and perform their ceremonial duties. Immediately beneath the Frankish king in the military hierarchy were the leudes , his sworn followers, who were generally 'old soldiers' in service away from court. The king had an elite bodyguard called the truste . Members of the truste often served in centannae , garrison settlements that were established for military and police purposes. The day-to-day bodyguard of
14256-421: The east bank of the Rhine. Gregory of Tours (Book II) reported that small Frankish kingdoms existed during the fifth century around Cologne , Tournai , Cambrai and elsewhere. The kingdom of the Merovingians eventually came to dominate the others, possibly because of its association with Roman power structures in northern Gaul, into which the Frankish military forces were apparently integrated to some extent. In
14418-727: The emperors of the Western Roman Empire . As such, the Carolingian Empire gradually came to be seen in the West as a continuation of the ancient Roman Empire. This empire would give rise to several successor states, including France, the Holy Roman Empire and Burgundy , though the Frankish identity remained most closely identified with France. After the death of Charlemagne , his only adult surviving son became Emperor and King Louis
14580-546: The establishment of civic institutions such as a bathing parlour and an infirmary. The great many donations to the Church bear witness to the people's wealth. Around the church over on the Kyr's left bank stood clerics' houses as well as the Latin school , which was first mentioned in 1402, and which in the course of its history sent dozens of students to every university in Germany. Because
14742-405: The first time. It seems likely that the term Frank in this first period had a broader meaning, sometimes including coastal Frisii . The Life of Aurelian , which was possibly written by Vopiscus, mentions that in 328, Frankish raiders were captured by the 6th Legion stationed at Mainz . As a result of this incident, 700 Franks were killed and 300 were sold into slavery. Frankish incursions over
14904-448: The king was made up of antrustiones (senior soldiers who were aristocrats in military service) and pueri (junior soldiers and not aristocrats). All high-ranking men had pueri . The Frankish military was not composed solely of Franks and Gallo-Romans, but also contained Saxons , Alans , Taifals and Alemanni . After the conquest of Burgundy (534), the well-organised military institutions of that kingdom were integrated into
15066-539: The last few years, tourism , too, has been growing in importance. For a town of its size, Kirn has a rather comprehensive offering of educational institutions. Besides five daycare centres and two primary schools , there is the municipal Hauptschule , which as of 1 August 2011 became a Realschule plus . Also available are a Gymnasium ( Gymnasium Kirn ), a Realschule and the Wilhelm-Dröscher-Schule for pupils with special needs. The vocational schools of
15228-622: The less Romanised regions of Gaul. On an intermediate level, the kings began calling up territorial levies from the regions of Austrasia (which did not have major cities of Roman origin). All the forms of the levy gradually disappeared, however, in the course of the 7th century after the reign of Dagobert I . Under the so-called rois fainéants , the levies disappeared by mid-century in Austrasia and later in Burgundy and Neustria. Only in Aquitaine, which
15390-546: The local lordships were somewhat less than decisive in their governance, the Reformation was introduced into the Waldgravial-Rhinegravial lands only in 1544 or 1545. Outwardly, the Kirn townsfolk's new self-assurance showed itself in the way they ended their own serfdom in 1600 by buying their freedom for 4,000 Rhenish guilders . It was many years, though, before the debt burden arising from this no longer weighed on
15552-437: The main entrance, was converted into a hotel with a restaurant in 2005. The rest of the building is now used as dwellings. Kirn's foremost landmark, standing above the town, is the Kyrburg (also written “Kirburg”), a former hill castle , now a ruin . It lies between the Nahe and Hahnenbach valleys high above Kirn. In 1128, the Kyrburg had its first documentary mention in a document from Count Emich de Kirberc . The castle
15714-562: The map. Its boundaries clock-wise, beginning in the East: The rocks in the Nahe region are predominantly of Cisuralian (early Permian ) age and part of the Rotliegendes . At that time, an impetuous volcanism appeared in the region. Huge deposits of the reddish volcanic rock Rhyolite and of the more alkaline volcanic rock Andesite were left. The valleys of the Nahe and its tributaries have been being formed since 2.6 million years ago during
15876-453: The marketplace in the middle. In other words, at the crossroads, a market grew up. This was the seed from which the town's history sprouted. The roads leading over the heights brought the people of the Nahegau to this market town. The Marktmeile ( ' market mile ' ), within whose tightly defined boundaries no other market was allowed to be held, protected the markets and those who fed them in
16038-528: The marketplace itself were, besides the two fountains, also lockable market stalls that could be hired by bakers , butchers and potters . On the Hahnenbach side of the square stood the 1508 town hall, which was torn down in 1849 to make way for what was even then a growing amount of traffic. The prison there once held the thirteen-year-old Johannes Bückler – better known as Schinderhannes – in 1796, but not for very long, for he quickly escaped. The townsfolk's self-assurance in those days showed itself in
16200-402: The melaphyre being quarried at Kirn's quarries. With the rise of the brewery near the winery in 1863, the town eventually earned itself the title "Town of Leather, Stones and Beer". As industry grew, so too did the demand for manpower, and thus between 1850 and 1910, the town's population swelled from roughly 1,500 to 7,000. This positive development was, however, interrupted by the upshot from
16362-468: The memorial to the war dead at the graveyard. The synagogue's address was Amthofstraße 2. A Jewish graveyard in Kirn was being mentioned as of 1555 (cadastral area called “off'm Judenkirchhof”), which presumably meant a graveyard for the mediaeval Jewish community. Its whereabouts are now unknown. In 1870, a new graveyard was laid out. It was expanded in 1915. The graveyard's area is 1 000 m. Preserved on part 1 are 33 graves, and on part 2, 21. In
16524-555: The men. His contemporary, Agathias, who based his own writings upon the tropes laid down by Procopius, says: The military equipment of this people [the Franks] is very simple ... They do not know the use of the coat of mail or greaves and the majority leave the head uncovered, only a few wear the helmet. They have their chests bare and backs naked to the loins, they cover their thighs with either leather or linen. They do not serve on horseback except in very rare cases. Fighting on foot
16686-775: The middle and lower river is famous for its white wines, dominated by the Riesling grape variety. Castles and monasteries – On the heights on both shores numerous medieval castles and abbeys can be visited, most of them fallen into ruin. Most noted are the Kyrburg Castle in Kirn , the castles Ebernburg and Rheingrafenstein in Bad Münster am Stein-Ebernburg and the Klopp Castle in Bingen . The monastery ruin of Disibodenberg , located on top of
16848-419: The more general levies were composed of pauperes and inferiores , who were mostly farmers by trade and carried ineffective weapons, such as farming implements. The peoples east of the Rhine – Franks, Saxons and even Wends – who were sometimes called upon to serve, wore rudimentary armour and carried weapons such as spears and axes . Few of these men were mounted. Merovingian society had
17010-671: The motorways A60 / A61 in the East and A62 in the West. Moreover, there is a railway line along the Nahe with regular connections between Mainz and Saarbrücken and stations in all bigger towns. Some 40 kilometres (25 mi) to the north the Frankfurt-Hahn Airport is in the Hunsrück, offering daily flights to London Stansted and further weekly and seasonal connections. Franks The Franks ( Latin : Franci or gens Francorum ; German : Franken ; French : Francs ) were
17172-542: The municipal election held on 7 June 2009, and the mayor as chairman. The municipal election held on 7 June 2009 yielded the following results: Gains and losses (“+/–”) are reckoned against the 2004 election results. Voter turnout was 48.5% (48.3% in 2004). Kirn's mayor is Frank Ensminger ( FDP ), and his deputies are Christa Hermes ( CDU ), Michael Kloos ( SPD ), and Hartmut Ott ( FWG ). The town's arms might be described thus: Gules two lions combatant Or armed and langued azure holding two cramps per saltire argent, crowning
17334-463: The name of Franks (meaning "fierce"). A decade later the Romans killed Priam and drove away Marcomer and Sunno , the sons of Priam and Antenor, and the other Franks. The most important contemporary sources mentioning the early Franks include the Panegyrici Latini , Ammianus Marcellinus , Claudian , Zosimus , Sidonius Apollinaris and Gregory of Tours . The Franks are first mentioned in
17496-499: The number of Jews (or Jewish families) to be raised to 15, which was likewise approved by the Emperor . Jewish life in the town was, however, destroyed in the antisemitic persecution that arose in the time of the Plague (1348-1349). It is believed that Kirn's Jewish families saw to their own institutions, such as a prayer room and a graveyard: from the 16th century to the 19th, there was still
17658-454: The old empire. Although the Frankish name does not appear until the 3rd century, at least some of the original Frankish tribes had long been known to the Romans under their own names, both as allies providing soldiers, and as enemies. The term is first used to describe the tribes working together to raid Roman territory. Frankish peoples subsequently living inside Rome's frontier on the Rhine river are often divided by historians into two groups –
17820-412: The only ones armed with spears, while all the rest were foot soldiers having neither bows nor spears, but each man carried a sword and shield and one axe. Now the iron head of this weapon was thick and exceedingly sharp on both sides, while the wooden handle was very short. And they are accustomed always to throw these axes at a signal in the first charge and thus to shatter the shields of the enemy and kill
17982-409: The only people in the world who are not cowards. While the above quotations have been used as a statement of the military practices of the Frankish nation in the 6th century and have even been extrapolated to the entire period preceding Charles Martel 's reforms (early mid-8th century), post-Second World War historiography has emphasised the inherited Roman characteristics of the Frankish military from
18144-459: The other hand, seems to have played a certain role. These circumstances favoured the growth of various handicrafts in the town. Livestock raising, the low-lying oak forest right nearby and the water from the Nahe and the Kyr consequently led to the establishment of tanning and wool processing. Reports of a woollen weavers' guild crop up as early as 1359. The tanners' and tailors ' guilds seem to have arisen about this time, too. The tanners, and
18306-481: The owner of a shop that sold brushes and household goods at Radergasse 1, Dr. med. Richard Asch (second leader), who since 1918 had had a medical practice at Bahnhofstraße 11, was a doctor for the Deutsche Reichsbahn , and was said to be called the "poor man's doctor" for his charitable engagement, and Wilhelm Vogel I (third leader), a merchant who lived at Neuestraße 9. Still working as teacher, cantor and shochet
18468-623: The point at which the Reichskammergericht even imposed a bankruptcy régime on the town. In 1794, he met his end in Paris at the guillotine . Beginning in 1797, the little state that was Kirn belonged, like all the German lands on the Rhine's left bank , to the French state . It formed together with a few outlying villages a mairie ( ' mayoralty ' ) in the Arrondissement of Simmern in
18630-485: The political alliances of his family, the leading families of Francia shared the same basic beliefs and ideas of government, which had both Roman and Germanic roots. The Frankish state consolidated its hold over the majority of western Europe by the end of the 8th century, developing into the Carolingian Empire. With the coronation of their ruler Charlemagne as Holy Roman Emperor by Pope Leo III in 800 AD, he and his successors were recognised as legitimate successors to
18792-509: The political centre of gravity in the kingdom gradually shifted eastwards to the Rhineland. The Frankish realm was reunited in 613 by Chlothar II , the son of Chilperic, who granted his nobles the Edict of Paris in an effort to reduce corruption and reassert his authority. Following the military successes of his son and successor Dagobert I , royal authority rapidly declined under a series of kings, traditionally known as les rois fainéants . After
18954-472: The region for about a decade before they were subdued and expelled by the Romans. In 287 or 288, the Roman Caesar Maximian forced a Frankish leader Genobaud and his people to surrender without a fight. In 288, the emperor Maximian defeated the Salian Franks , Chamavi , Frisii and other Germanic people living along the Rhine and moved them to Germania inferior to provide manpower and prevent
19116-650: The region, among others Hennweiler , Bruschied , Becherbach , Simmern unter Dhaun (today Simmertal ), Merxheim , Meddersheim , Sien , Laufersweiler and Hottenbach . After 1900, the Jews living in Becherbach became part of the Kirn Jewish community, having hitherto belonged to the Hundsbach community. The actual entity known as the Jewish community (the Israelitische Religionsgesellschaft in Kirn )
19278-493: The reigns of the brothers Sigebert I and Chilperic I , which was largely fuelled by the rivalry of their queens, Brunhilda and Fredegunda , and which continued during the reigns of their sons and their grandsons. Three distinct subkingdoms emerged: Austrasia , Neustria and Burgundy, each of which developed independently and sought to exert influence over the others. The influence of the Arnulfing clan of Austrasia ensured that
19440-699: The religion teachers were Joseph Seligmann (about 1880), Max Goldschmidt (about 1892; born in 1871 in Schlüchtern ; died at Theresienstadt concentration camp in 1943), Joseph Nathan Kahn (in 1898–1899; born in 1877 in Rieneck ; had been a teacher in Babenhausen , after his short time in Kirn he moved to Offenbach am Main ), Bernhard Weil (beginning in 1908; born in 1868 in Eichstetten , died in 1943 in Noé , Haute-Garonne , France ,
19602-468: The river's length high floods can occur along its middle and lower course within only a few hours, however flowing off also quickly. In 1993 and 1995 in Bad Kreuznach a flow of more than 1,000 cubic metres per second (35,000 cu ft/s) was measured and more than 1,300 cubic metres per second (46,000 cu ft/s) at its mouth into the Rhine. The dimensions of the drainage basin are shown in
19764-562: The same is true for a number of the outlying villages that then belonged to the Oberamt . Particularly worthy of mention here are the winery on Kallenfelser Straße, the Piarist monastery (nowadays the town hall) and many official and private buildings throughout the town. Meanwhile, in 1767, Kirn received a town charter. Johann Dominik's nephew and successor Friedrich III ruined the country's finances with his impecunious ways of conducting his life, to
19926-610: The scene by the 8th century. Merovingian armies used coats of mail , helmets, shields , lances , swords , bows and arrows and war horses . The armament of private armies resembled those of the Gallo-Roman potentiatores of the late Empire. A strong element of Alanic cavalry settled in Armorica influenced the fighting style of the Bretons down into the 12th century. Local urban levies could be reasonably well-armed and even mounted, but
20088-413: The settlement of other Germanic tribes. In 292, Constantius , the father of Constantine I defeated the Franks who had settled at the mouth of the Rhine. These were moved to the nearby region of Toxandria . Eumenius mentions Constantius as having "killed, expelled, captured [and] kidnapped" the Franks who had settled there and others who had crossed the Rhine, using the term nationes Franciae for
20250-649: The shield a mural coronet with three towers embattled of the second. Kirn fosters partnerships with the following places: The following are listed buildings or sites in Rhineland-Palatinate ’s Directory of Cultural Monuments: This Gothic Revival hall church , originally consecrated to Saint Pancras , with its Late Gothic quire and Romanesque steeple from the 11th or 12th century was renovated in 1992 and 1993 to give it back its original form and interior design. Inside are found several tombs of Walgraves -Rhinegraves that are worth seeing. Between 1681 and 1892,
20412-589: The sixth century a fairly recent creation, a coalition of Rhenish tribal groups who long maintained separate identities and institutions." The other work, the Liber Historiae Francorum , previously known as Gesta regum Francorum before its republication in 1888 by Bruno Krusch, described how 12,000 Trojans, led by Priam and Antenor , sailed from Troy to the River Don in Russia and on to Pannonia , which
20574-434: The soil temperatures in these places can reach 60 °C/140 °F and above with truly steppe-like circumstances. A characteristical thermophile animal species is the insulated population of the dice snake ( Natrix tessellata ) that exists along the Nahe. The snake is very addicted to water and captures small fishes. Places of botanical and/or zoological significance are classified as nature protection areas and accompany
20736-488: The spectacular natural ledge, of which the nearby formation, the Oberhauser Felsen (also called the “Kirner Dolomiten”), is also a part, that lies athwart the Hahnenbach valley. The castle is actually three castle complexes on separate crags. Standing on the lowest crag is a castle that had fallen into disrepair as early as the 16th century, called “Stock im Hane”. It has no appreciable wall remnants. On another crag stands
20898-422: The still-pagan trans-Rhenish stem duchies on the orders of a monarch. The Saxons , Alemanni and Thuringii all had the institution of the levy and the Frankish monarchs could depend upon their levies until the mid-7th century, when the stem dukes began to sever their ties to the monarchy. Radulf of Thuringia called up the levy for a war against Sigebert III in 640. Soon the local levy spread to Austrasia and
21060-465: The street. The side with the eaves was framed with lesenes between which were found windows, Rundbogen windows in both the outer fields and above these tracery -filled round windows, while in both the inner fields, twinned windows with mullions , also topped with tracery. A report appeared about the consecration in the Kirner Zeitung on 26 February 1888: In February 1928, a commemorative service
21222-535: The stretch of the Rhine from roughly Mainz to Duisburg , the region of the city of Cologne , are often considered separately from the Salians, and sometimes in modern texts referred to as Ripuarian Franks. The Ravenna Cosmography suggests that Francia Renensis included the old civitas of the Ubii , in Germania II ( Germania Inferior ), but also the northern part of Germania I (Germania Superior), including Mainz . Like
21384-567: The tanners, both those using bark tanning and those using mineral tanning, set up shop – sometimes jointly – in the area between the Nahe , the Hahnenbach and the millpond, after traditionally keeping their tanneries along the bank of the Hahnenbach. After 1850, a few tanning families moved on and rose with new businesses in new locations, sometimes to worldwide importance. After the Rhine-Nahe Railway had been completed, not only leather products could be shipped to market, but so could
21546-460: The town by car in just under a half hour. Nahe (Rhine) The Nahe ( German pronunciation: [ˈnaːə] ) is a river in Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland , Germany , a left tributary to the Rhine . It has also given name to the wine region Nahe situated around it. The name Nahe is derived from the Latin word Nava , which is supposed to be based upon the Celtic origin for
21708-772: The town has two homes for the elderly, both under church sponsorship. Kirn is linked by Bundesstraße 41 to Saarbrücken and Mainz . Leading across the Hunsrück to the Moselle is Landesstraße 184. One can board a train at Kirn on the Nahe Valley Railway ( Bingen –Saarbrücken). The travel time on the hourly Regionalexpress trains to Saarbrücken is 1 hour and 10 minutes, while Mainz can be reached in just under an hour. Every other train to and from Frankfurt also runs through to Frankfurt Airport . Frankfurt-Hahn Airport lies some 30 km away from Kirn and can be reached from
21870-501: The town is also well known for its local brewery and the beer that it brews, Kirner Pils. Kirn's biggest employer is SIMONA AG , a worldwide-active manufacturer and distributor of thermoplastic semi-finished products, which originally grew out of the leatherware field. Further important branches of the economy are woodworking, plant construction, the hard-rock industry, packaging and automotive supply. Many small and midsize craft and retail businesses are also represented in town. Over
22032-585: The town its name contain the noble gas radon, with supposedly curative properties. The town's most famous site is the Alte Nahebrücke (Old Nahe Bridge), one of the few remaining bridges in the world with buildings on it. Saline valley - Between Bad Münster am Stein and Bad Kreuznach the scenic valley of the Nahe has some bathing sites with hydrothermal and saline springs. Graduation towers , formerly used for salt production, are regarded as having beneficial health effects. The so-called "Rotenfels" (red rock),
22194-411: The town itself passed in 1743 to the line of Salm-Leuze. Together with his brother Phillip Joseph, Prince Johann Dominik Albert took over the lordship. Johann Dominik (1708-1778) was an enlightened, affable prince, who through future-oriented measures, such as building streets and boulevards, boosted the economy. Many of his master builder Thomas Petri's buildings still characterize Kirn's appearance, and
22356-492: The town's economy. Kirn's and its economy's favourable growth came to a dead stop with the Thirty Years' War . Foreign fighters ( Spaniards , Croats , Frenchmen and Swedes , to name but a few) along with two Plague epidemics wrought havoc with the town, reducing its 230 families in 1616 (two years before the war broke out) to only 74 afterwards. These losses were somewhat offset by the arrival of newcomers from Lombardy ,
22518-771: The underground, narrow gorges with cliffy precipices arose in areas with hard volcanic rocks or wide gentle valleys with flood plains in areas with soft sedimentary deposits. The frequent change between both forms is charming along the Nahe. In the Nahe valley, a huge number of thermophile species appear which usually can only be found in the mediterranean region or Eurasian steppe habitats. Characteristical species of plants are e. g. Alyssum montanum , Aster linosyris ("Goldilocks Aster"), Dictamnus albus ("White Dittany"), Dianthus grationopolitanus ("Cheddar Pink"), Gagea bohemica subsp. saxatilis ("Early-Star-of-Bethlehem"), Galium glaucum ("Glaucous Bedstraw"), Oxytropis pilosa or Stipa tirsa . These plants immigrated in
22680-424: The uses of this land break down thus: Clockwise from the north, Kirn's neighbours are the municipalities of Oberhausen bei Kirn , Hochstetten-Dhaun , Meckenbach , Heimweiler and Bärenbach , the town of Idar-Oberstein and the municipalities of Fischbach , Bergen and Hahnenbach . Idar-Oberstein, Fischbach and Bergen all lie in the neighbouring Birkenfeld district, whereas all the others likewise lie within
22842-481: The wave of pogroms that swept the region as a result of the Oberwesel blood libel (see Werner of Oberwesel ). The survivors moved away from Kirn. In the earlier half of the 14th century, however, there were once again Jews living in the town. The Waldgrave of Kyrburg, then the town's lord, took ownership of three Jews, after having secured leave from King Albrecht to do so in 1301. In 1330, Waldgrave Johann asked for
23004-413: The way of institutions, there were a synagogue (see Synagogue below), a Jewish school, a mikveh and a graveyard (see Jewish graveyard below). To provide for the community's religious needs, a schoolteacher was hired, who also busied himself as the hazzan and the shochet (preserved is a whole series of job advertisements for such a position in Kirn from such publications as Der Israelit ). Among
23166-460: The way to there, and this became the Frankish kingdom of Neustria , the basis of what would become medieval France. Childeric's son Clovis I also took control of the more independent Frankish kingdoms east of the Silva Carbonaria and Belgica II. This later became the Frankish kingdom of Austrasia , where the early legal code was referred to as "Ripuarian". The Rhineland Franks who lived near
23328-758: The west the town now bordered on the Birkenfeld district in the Grand Duchy of Oldenburg and to the south on the Meisenheim district in the Landgraviate of Hesse-Homburg . Thus, just beyond the last houses in town began foreign territory. The economic downfall arising from this situation could not be stopped. Together with seven villages, Kirn now formed the Bürgermeisterei ( ' Mayoralty ' ) of Kirn, an arrangement that lasted until 1857 when, by Royal Cabinet Order, Kirn
23490-532: The western kingdom founded by them outside the original area of Frankish settlement. In the 5th century, Franks under Chlodio pushed into Roman lands in and beyond the " Silva Carbonaria " or "Charcoal forest", which ran through the area of modern western Wallonia . The forest was the boundary of the original Salian territories to the north and the more Romanized area to the south in the Roman province of Belgica Secunda , which now lies in northern France. Chlodio conquered Tournai , Artois , Cambrai , and as far as
23652-541: The wild river . The Nahe separates the northern part of the Palatinate from the Hunsrück . It rises in the area of Nohfelden (Saarland), flowing through Rhineland-Palatinate and joining the Rhine in Bingen . Its length is 125 kilometres (78 mi). Towns along the Nahe include Idar-Oberstein , Kirn , Bad Kreuznach and Bingen. The drainage basin of the river covers an area of 4,067 square kilometres (1,570 sq mi). Due to this relatively large area compared to
23814-466: The works of Virgil and Hieronymus : Blessed Jerome has written about the ancient kings of the Franks, whose story was first told by the poet Virgil: their first king was Priam and, after Troy was captured by trickery, they departed. Afterwards they had as king Friga, then they split into two parts, the first going into Macedonia, the second group, which left Asia with Friga were called the Frigii, settled on
23976-399: The year round by Kulturinitiative Kirn . Twice each year, the hall, big enough for up to 500 people, converts itself into an exhibition hall where, for a fortnight each time, paintings and sculptures, mostly by local artists, are put on display. After intensive conversion work, the family leisure pool “Jahnbad” was opened again in the spring of 2002. Besides the 50 m-long main basin, there
24138-541: Was a backyard behind the inn “Zur Krone” on Übergasse (a lane), which had once been used as a gymnasium (today a carpark occupies this spot). In 1887, the foundation stone was laid for a synagogue on Amthofstraße, whose architects and building contractors were the Brothers Benkelberg from Kirn. On 24 and 25 February 1888, the synagogue was festively consecrated. The building was conjoined with its neighbours, which all stood in an unbroken row, and its eaves faced
24300-415: Was built about 1771 on Prince Dominik von Salm-Kyrburg's orders. The horseshoe-shaped building, whose front is still adorned with the princely family's coat of arms in its original form, was built by master builder Johann Thomas Petri from Schneppenbach . After the Second World War and until 1990, the building housed a fruit juicing plant. After standing empty for several years, the left wing, along with
24462-429: Was by building upon the basis of this Merovingian empire that the subsequent dynasty, the Carolingians , eventually came to be seen as the new emperors of Western Europe in 800, when Charlemagne was crowned by the pope. In 870 , the Frankish realm came to be permanently divided between western and eastern kingdoms, which were the predecessors of the later Kingdom of France and Holy Roman Empire respectively. It
24624-591: Was called the Lex Ribuaria , but it probably applied in all the older Frankish lands, including the original Salian areas. Jordanes , in his Getica mentions a group called the "Riparii" as auxiliaries of Flavius Aetius during the Battle of Châlons in 451, and distinct from the "Franci": "Hi enim affuerunt auxiliares: Franci, Sarmatae, Armoriciani, Liticiani, Burgundiones, Saxones, Riparii, Olibriones ..." But these Riparii ("river dwellers") are today not considered to be Ripuarian Franks, but rather
24786-516: Was fast becoming independent of the central Frankish monarchy, did complex military institutions persist into the 8th century. In the final half of the 7th century and first half of the 8th in Merovingian Gaul, the chief military actors became the lay and ecclesiastical magnates with their bands of armed followers called retainers. The other aspects of the Merovingian military, mostly Roman in origin or innovations of powerful kings, disappeared from
24948-508: Was founded in 1866 when a leadership and representatives were elected and at the same time both a men's association and a women's association came into being. Appearing on the 1866 list of "Jews who have been empowered to exercise the franchise " were Jacob Ullmann ( salesman ), David Ullmann ( merchant ), David Wolf ( spice dealer from Löllbach ), Moses Lieb (salesman) Abraham Scholem (merchant), Marcus Loeb (merchant from Weierbach ) and Jacob Mayer ( musician , innkeeper from Hennweiler ). In
25110-402: Was granted the rank of town. Now, however, there was only one leader, the mayor, who held the reins of both the town and the now supposedly separate outlying villages. This " personal union " lasted until 1896. Only after the fall of the customs barriers and the building of the Rhine-Nahe Railway (1856-1859) was there once again an appreciable economic upswing. Leathermaking began to recover once
25272-430: Was held for the synagogue's 40th anniversary. Participating at the celebration were the town's dignitaries, led by Mayor Bongartz. On 28 February 1928, the Kirner Zeitung also published a report about this: Ten years later, on Kristallnacht (9–10 November 1938), Brownshirt thugs thrust their way into the synagogue and destroyed the whole institution. Pews and Judaica were dragged outside and burnt. On 13 April 1939,
25434-746: Was in 289. [...] The Chamavi were mentioned as a Frankish people as early as 289, the Bructeri from 307, the Chattuarri from 306 to 315, the Salii or Salians from 357, and the Amsivarii and Tubantes from c. 364 to 375. The Franks were described in Roman texts both as allies ( laeti ) and enemies ( dediticii ). About the year 260, during the Crisis of the Third Century , one group of Franks penetrated as far as Tarragona in present-day Spain, where they plagued
25596-430: Was one of the seats held by the Waldgraves (whose successors were the Emichones ). By the late 13th century, the Waldgraves had split into several lines, one of which named itself after the Kyrburg. In 1409, the Rhinegraves took over the holding through marriage. In the Thirty Years' War , after being occupied by the Spaniards , the Swedes and Imperial troops, it fell into French hands in 1681. Eight years later,
25758-490: Was the inhabitants of western kingdom who eventually came to be known as "the French " ( French : Les Français , German : Die Franzosen , Dutch : De Fransen , etc.) and this kingdom is the forerunner of the nation state of France. However, in various historical contexts, such as during the medieval crusades, not only the French, but also people from neighbouring regions in Western Europe , continued to be referred to collectively as Franks. The crusaders in particular had
25920-425: Was the same Bernhard Weil already named. In the 1931–1932 school year, he taught 12 Jewish children from the community in religion. After 1933, the year when Adolf Hitler and the Nazis seized power , though, some of the Jews (that year, almost 100 persons) moved away or even emigrated in the face of the boycotting of their businesses, the progressive stripping of their rights and repression, all brought about by
26082-453: Was torn down in 1880 in the Old Town to make way for growing traffic. The Kyrbach's left bank was also built up. Standing here was the church , which if anything was part of an old royal estate. As a landhold of the Archbishopric of Mainz it became an outlying centre of a great rural chapter that comprised the rural clergy all the way over to the Simmern area. Even after various divisions of inheritance, Kirn remained between 1258 and 1790
26244-469: Was until February 1939 in Kirn, thereafter and until his deportation in October 1940 in Karlsruhe ; further details can be found at the end of this section). One member of Kirn's Jewish community fell in the First World War , Alfred Moritz (b. 16 May 1890 in Meisenheim , d. 20 June 1916). In 1925, Kirn's Jewish community numbered 106 (1.4% of the total population). In 1932, the Jewish community's leaders were Ferdinand Schmelzer (head of leadership), since 1911
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