Schwarzerden is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde , a kind of collective municipality – in the Bad Kreuznach district in Rhineland-Palatinate , Germany . It belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde Kirner Land , whose seat is in the town of Kirn .
90-585: Schwarzerden lies in the Hunsrück at an elevation of 450 m above sea level at the southern edge of the Soonwald above the Kellenbach. The municipal area is 58.6% wooded. Clockwise from the north, Schwarzerden's neighbours are the municipality of Mengerschied , the town of Bad Sobernheim (exclave, not main townsite), and the municipalities of Weitersborn , Kellenbach and Henau , all of which likewise lie within
180-486: A church tax , a surcharge on their normal income tax collected by the states of Germany and passed on to the respective religious body. The structure of the EKD is based on federal principles. Each regional church is responsible for Christian life in its own area while each regional church has its own special characteristics and retains its independence. The EKD carries out joint tasks with which its members have entrusted it. For
270-642: 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
360-407: 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
450-578: 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
540-503: 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,
630-666: A split in the 20th century and lost a bulk of its adherents in East Germany due to state atheist policies of the former East German government. After 1990, membership was counted and amounted to around the same number as the Roman Catholic Church. In the 21st century, membership in both the Evangelical Church and the Roman Catholic Church stagnates as more people are becoming religious nones. A 2019 study estimated that there were 114,000 unreported victims of sexual abuse in
720-600: 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
810-571: A tower argent. The countercompony (that is, with two chequered bands) pattern on the dexter (armsbearer's right, viewer's left) side is a reference to the village's former allegiance to the Counts of Sponheim , Amt of Koppenstein. The castle tower on the sinister (armsbearer's left, viewer's right) side shows the Alteburg in the tinctures borne by the Lords of Steinkallenfels (High Court of Kellenbach), to whom
900-610: Is a junction between Bundesstraßen 41 and 421. Serving nearby Martinstein , just east of Simmertal, is a railway station on the Nahe Valley Railway ( Bingen – Saarbrücken ). Hunsr%C3%BCck The Hunsrück ( German pronunciation: [ˈhʊnsʁʏk] ) is a long, triangular, pronounced upland in Rhineland-Palatinate , Germany . It is bounded by the valleys of the Moselle-Saar (north-to-west),
990-615: Is around 100 km long (SW to NE) and an average of 25 to 30 km wide (NW to SE). Its perimeter is a heavily 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),
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#17329209722411080-441: 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 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
1170-591: 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 chairwoman. Schwarzerden's mayor is Kevin Keller. The German blazon reads: In gespaltenem Schild, vorne blau-golden geschacht, hinten in Rot ein silberner Burgturm . The municipality's arms might in English heraldic language be described thus: Per pale countercompony of azure and Or and gules
1260-532: 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
1350-790: Is responsible to aid feeble sister churches, especially in Roman Catholic countries and the Protestant diaspora . It has separate branches internationally, the organization in Austria is still called the Gustav-Adolf-Verein. Brot für die Welt is responsible for international development aid. The umbrella of the Protestant Church in Germany comprises 20 regional churches: These bodies are termed Landeskirchen ("Regional Churches") though in most cases, their territories do not correspond to
1440-520: Is shown in the table below. The figures for the years from 1871 to 1987 are drawn from census data: As at 31 January 2014, there are 243 full-time residents in Schwarzerden, and of those, 155 are Evangelical (63.786%), 46 are Catholic (18.93%), 1 is Greek Orthodox (0.412%), 2 are Russian Orthodox (0.823%), 3 (1.235%) belong to other religious groups and 36 (14.815%) either have no religion or will not reveal their religious affiliation. The council
1530-502: Is the representative and governing body of the Protestant Church in Germany. The Council of the EKD has 15 members jointly elected by the Synod and Church Conference who serve terms of six years. The chairperson of the Council is the church's highest representative. The Church Conference is where member churches, through the representatives of their governing boards, can directly participate in
1620-550: The Anglican or Roman Catholic churches, however, else there is no common hierarchy supervising the member churches, who are legally independent equals with the EKD being their umbrella. Members of congregations within the member churches – like those of parishes within Catholic dioceses and those enrolled in Jewish congregations also enjoying statutory corporation status – are required to pay
1710-739: The Arrondissement of Simmern. After French rule ended in the German lands on the Rhine ’s left bank, Schwarzerden passed in 1816 to the Bürgermeisterei (“Mayoralty”) of Gemünden in the Prussian district of Simmern, where it remained until the latest administrative restructuring in Rhineland-Palatinate . Since 8 November 1970, Schwarzerden has been part of the Verbandsgemeinde of Kirn-Land . Schwarzerden's population development since Napoleonic times
1800-565: The Counts of Sponheim . In 1766, there were all together 44 households who were all subject to the sovereignty of the Margrave of Baden , who was now the rightful heir to the Sponheim comital family's territory. In the course of French Revolutionary administrative restructuring about 1800, the village was assigned to the then newly founded Mairie (“Mayoralty”) of Monzingen in the Canton of Sobernheim and
1890-478: The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Hanover and Chairperson of the Council of the EKD from 2009 until February 2010, was the first woman to head the EKD. Blessings of same-sex marriages is practised and allowed in 14 of 20 and Blessing of same-sex unions are allowed in all other member churches. The EKD opposes abortion in most situations but believes it should remain legal. The EKD has undergone
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#17329209722411980-663: The German Revolution , with the formation of the Weimar Republic and the abdication of the princes of the German states. The system of state churches disappeared with the Weimar Constitution (1919), which brought about disestablishment by the separation of church and state , and there was a desire for the Protestant churches to merge. In fact, a merger was permanently under discussion but never materialised due to strong regional self-confidence and traditions as well as
2070-568: 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
2160-715: 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
2250-602: 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
2340-622: 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
2430-758: 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
2520-573: The Weimar Republic era in the form of the German Protestant Church Confederation , which existed from 1922 until 1933. Earlier, there had been successful royal efforts at unity in various German states, beginning with Prussia and several minor German states (e.g. Duchy of Nassau ) in 1817. These unions resulted in the first united and uniting churches, a new development within Protestantism which later spread to other parts of
2610-517: The government region of Stuttgart . The vast majority of German Protestants belong to a member church of the EKD. With 20,236,000 members in 2020, around 24.3 percent of all Germans belong to a member church of the EKD. Average church attendance is lower, however, with only around a million people (1.2 % of all Germans) attending a service on Sunday. The regional Protestant church bodies accept each other as equals, despite denominational differences. No member church runs congregations or churches in
2700-685: The mainline . English speaking churches such as the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada likewise retain this use of the term. From the Peace of Augsburg in 1555 to the end of the First World War and the collapse of the German Empire , some Protestant churches were state churches . Each Landeskirche (state or regional church) was the official church of one of
2790-538: 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
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2880-755: The states of Germany , while the respective ruler was the church's formal head (e.g. the King of Prussia headed the Evangelical Church of Prussia's older Provinces as supreme governor), similar to the British monarch 's role as the Supreme Governor of the Church of England . This changed somewhat with growing religious freedom in the 19th century, especially in the republican states of Bremen , Frankfurt (1857), Lübeck , and Hamburg (1860). The greatest change came after
2970-823: 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 . Evangelical Church in Germany The Evangelical Church in Germany ( German : Evangelische Kirche in Deutschland , EKD ), also known as the Protestant Church in Germany , is a federation of twenty Lutheran , Reformed , and United Protestant regional Churches in Germany , collectively encompassing
3060-710: 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
3150-472: The BEK merged with the EKD. While the members are no longer state churches, they enjoy constitutional protection as statutory corporations , and they are still called Landeskirchen , and some have this term in their official names. A modern English translation, however, would be regional church . Apart from some minor changes, the territories of the member churches today reflect Germany's political organisation in
3240-569: The Bad Kreuznach district except the first and last named, which lie in the neighbouring Rhein-Hunsrück-Kreis . Schwarzerden's name is interpreted by placename researchers as meaning a settlement area with dark-coloured, humus -rich soil, and indeed the words for “black earth” are still quite obvious in the village's name to a modern German speaker. In 1325, Schwarzerden had its first documentary mention when Prince-Archbishop-Elector of Trier Baldwin of Luxembourg acquired rights and landholds at
3330-454: The EKD synod , but they act as individual members of the World Council of Churches (WCC) and the Community of Protestant Churches in Europe (CPCE). Boundaries of EKD churches within Germany partially resemble those of the states of the Holy Roman Empire and successor forms of German statehood (to the most part 1815 borders ), due to the historically close relationship between individual German states and churches. As for church governance,
3420-400: The EKD and the Catholic Church in Germany combined. The 95% confidence interval comprises 28,000 to 280,000 victims. According to a study published in 2024, pedophilic members of the EKD have sexually abused at least 9,355 minors since 1946. Putting this figure into context, the coordinator of the study clarified that this number of cases was only the tip of the iceberg. The average age of
3510-401: 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
3600-432: The German word evangelisch means "of the Gospel", denoting a Reformation emphasis on sola scriptura , "by scripture alone". Martin Luther encouraged the use of this term alongside Christian . The German term evangelisch corresponds to the broad English category of Protestant rather than to the narrower evangelical movement (in German called evangelikal ), a subset of Protestantism distinct from
3690-437: 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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3780-459: 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
3870-508: 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,
3960-425: 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
4050-402: The Hunsrück is formed by the Hunsrück Plateau and the Simmern Bowl. In the northwest the Hunsrück is bounded by 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
4140-416: 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
4230-413: 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
4320-417: 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
4410-400: 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
4500-429: 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
4590-442: The Hunsrück, but belongs to the Upper Rhine Plain . The Idar Forest , the Hochwald and the Wildenburger Kopf adjoin 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
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#17329209722414680-487: The Lutheran churches typically practise an episcopal polity , while the Reformed and the United ones a mixture of presbyterian and congregationalist polities. Most member churches are led by a (state) bishop . Only one member church, the Evangelical Reformed Church in Germany , is not restricted to a certain territory. In some ways, the other member churches resemble dioceses of the Catholic and Anglican churches, from an organisational point of view. Etymologically,
4770-480: 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 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
4860-408: The Nazi struggle of the churches . This turned the Evangelical Church of the old-Prussian Union into a mere umbrella, being itself a member of EKD (and the BEK, 1969–1991) but covering some regional church bodies, which were again themselves members of EKD (and the BEK, 1969–1991). Since 1973, when many Protestant churches in Europe, including the EKD members, concluded the Leuenberg Agreement , also
4950-446: The Nazi regime's ideology. After the installation of Hanns Kerrl as minister for church matters in a Führer-directive of 16 July 1935 and the foundation of the – in the end not materialising – Protestant Reich Church , the DEK played more or less no further role. In 1948, freed from the German Christians' influence, the Lutheran, Reformed (including the German Reformed Church / Reformierte Kirche ) and United churches came together as
5040-417: The Protestant Church in Germany at the Conference of Eisenach. In 1969, the regional Protestant churches in East Germany and East Berlin broke away from the EKD and formed the League of Evangelical Churches in the German Democratic Republic (German: Bund der Evangelischen Kirchen in der DDR , BEK), in 1970 also joined by the Moravian Herrnhut District. In June 1991, following German reunification ,
5130-426: 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
5220-449: 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
5310-495: 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 , 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
5400-475: The area of another member church, thus preventing competing with each other for parishioners. The only exception is the Evangelical Reformed Church, which combines Reformed congregations within the ambits of usually Lutheran member churches, which themselves do not include the eventual local Reformed congregations. Thus, for example, a Lutheran moving from a place where their parish belongs to a Lutheran member church, would be accepted in their new place of domicile by
5490-554: The centre. The following are listed buildings or sites in Rhineland-Palatinate ’s Directory of Cultural Monuments: Northeast of Schwarzerden are found remnants of the Celtic ringwall called the Alteburg (“Old Castle”). A lookout tower there affords visitors a broad, panoramic view. The following clubs are active in Schwarzerden: Running through Schwarzerden is Kreisstraße 15, locally known as Hauptstraße (“Main Street”). This leads north to Landesstraße 229 and south to Landesstraße 230, which leads to Simmertal , where there
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#17329209722415580-403: The church. Other Protestant churches aligned themselves with one of these groups, or stayed neutral in this church strife. The postwar church council issued the Stuttgart Declaration of Guilt on 19 October 1945, confessing guilt and declaring remorse for indifference and inaction of German Protestants in the face of atrocities committed by Hitler's regime. In 1948, the Protestant Church in Germany
5670-495: The churches' relationship with the new governments improved. It was realised that one mainstream Protestant church for all of Germany was impossible and that any union would need a federal model. The churches met in Dresden in 1919 and created a plan for federation, and this plan was adopted in 1921 at Stuttgart . Then in 1922 the then 28 territorially defined Protestant churches founded the German Evangelical Church Confederation ( Deutscher Evangelischer Kirchenbund , DEK). At
5760-413: The denominational fragmentation into Lutheran , Reformed , and United and uniting churches . During the Revolution, when the old church governments lost power, the People's Church Union ( Volkskirchenbund ) was formed and advocated unification without respect to theological tradition and also increasing input from laymen . However, the People's Church Union quickly split along territorial lines after
5850-490: The east of 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
5940-425: The execution of these tasks, the Church has the following governing bodies, all organised and elected on democratic lines: The Synod is the legislature of the EKD. It has 126 members: 106 elected by Landeskirchen synods and 20 appointed by the council. These 20 are appointed for their importance in the life of the Church and its agencies. Members serve six year terms and the synod meets annually. The EKD Council
6030-483: The highest peak in the Hunsrück and in the Rhenish Massif west of the Rhine. It continues to the NE as the Idar Forest with its highest peaks, An den zwei Steinen (766.2 m) and 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
6120-406: The locally competent congregation within another member church, even if this church and its local parish are Reformed or of united Protestant confession, with Lutheran being exchangeable with the two other respective Protestant confessions within the EKD. This is due to full altar and pulpit fellowship between all EKD member churches. In this the ambits of the member churches resemble dioceses of
6210-452: 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)
6300-422: 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
6390-406: 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
6480-523: 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
6570-522: The number of inhabitants roughly 60 or 70. By 1579, the Schwarzerden villagers were still having to pay two Simmer in “toll oats ” ( Zollhafer ) to the Lords of Steinkallenfels for using the market at Kirn . Clear from this on the one hand is an older dependence on the Steinkallenfelses, and on the other hand a certain economic tendency on the villagers’ part towards Kirn. In 1702, there were eleven families living in Schwarzerden who were subjects of
6660-576: 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
6750-450: The same year. The climate sees mists that rise most mornings. More rain than the German average is caused by 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
6840-794: The then 21 EKD members introduced full communion for their parishioners and ministry among each other. Since also the regional Protestant churches in East Germany had signed the Leuenberg Agreement, thus the then ten members of the Federation of Protestant Churches in the German Democratic Republic practised full communion with the EKD members too. Ordination of women is practised in all 20 member churches with many women having been ordained in recent years. There are also several women serving as bishops. Margot Käßmann , former bishop of
6930-677: The time that followed granted to families of the lower nobility as mesne fiefs . Named as feudal lords were the Family von Rüdesheim (1439) and the Family von der Leyen (1543). Furthermore, the Knights of Schmidtburg (1517) and the Vögte of Hunolstein (1555) were furnished with rights and landholds in Schwarzerden. During the Middle Ages , the village belonged to the High Court of Kellenbach, which also comprised
7020-540: The time, the federation was the largest Protestant church federation in Europe with around 40 million members. Because it was a federation of independent bodies, the Church Union's work was limited to foreign missions and relations with Protestant churches outside Germany, especially German Protestants in other countries. In July 1933, the German Evangelical Church ( Deutsche Evangelische Kirche , DEK)
7110-498: The vast majority of the country's Protestants. In 2022, the EKD had a membership of 19,153,000 members, or 22.7% of the German population. It constitutes one of the largest Protestant bodies in the world. Church offices managing the federation are located in Herrenhausen , Hanover , Lower Saxony . Many of its members consider themselves Lutherans. Historically, the first formal attempt to unify German Protestantism occurred during
7200-865: The victims is 11 years. Confessions of EKD parishioners Protestantism is the major religion in Northern , Eastern and Middle Germany , with the Reformed branch predominating in the extreme northwest and Lippe , the Lutheran branch in the north and south, and the United branch in Middle and Western Germany . While the majority of Christians in Southern Germany are Catholic , some areas in Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria are predominantly Protestant, e.g. Middle Franconia and
7290-611: The village formerly belonged. Municipal council, on 15 May 1972, gave the graphic artist Brust from Kirn-Sulzbach the task of designing a municipal coat of arms. At a council meeting on 17 November 1972, council adopted the design that had been put forth. After consent by the state archive, the Ministry of the Interior in Mainz granted approval for Schwarzerden to bear its own arms on 17 January 1973. The municipal banner also bears this coat of arms in
7380-471: The village from the knight Sir Friedrich of Steinkallenfels. Mentioned in 1334 was a forest with the name Schwartzerdyn that was “ propre castrum Coppenstein ” (near Castle Koppenstein, now a ruin outside neighbouring Henau ) that the Prince-Archbishop-Elector also chose to buy. In 1355, the knight Sir Tilmann vom Stein (Wartenstein) was enfeoffed with this landhold. The Trier landholds were in
7470-535: The villages of Kellenbach , Henau and Königsau . The Lords of Steinkallenfels and their coheirs might originally have been the only court lords in this judicial zone. Through division of inheritance, sale and enfeoffments, though, the court lordship was later shared by several local lords, making the High Court of Kellenbach a condominium under joint high-court jurisdiction. In 1601, there were 14 hearths (for which read “households”) in Schwarzerden, which would have made
7560-484: The work of the EKD. The Church Office is the administration of the EKD and shall the business of the Synod, Council and Conference of the EKD. Main divisions : The EKD Church Office has approximately 200 employees. The EKD holds various charities ("Hilfswerke") under its auspices. The Gustav-Adolf-Werk (GAW) (Gustaphus Adolphus Union formerly) was founded 1832 in Leipzig as the first and eldest such organization and
7650-514: The world. When Adolf Hitler came to power in 1933, his administration tried to reorganize the old confederation into a unified German Evangelical Church as Hitler wanted to use a single Protestant church to further his own ambitions. However, a division emerged between the Reichskirche , led by the pro-government German Christians , and the Confessing Church , which opposed state control of
7740-477: The year 1848, with regional churches for states or provinces that often no longer exist or whose borders changed since. For example, between 1945 and 1948, the remaining six ecclesiastical provinces ( Kirchenprovinzen ), each territorially comprising one of the Old Prussia provinces , within the Evangelical Church of the old-Prussian Union assumed independence as a consequence of the estrangement among them during
7830-462: 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
7920-533: 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
8010-516: Was formed under the influence of the German Christians , a pro- Nazi religious movement. They had much influence over the decisions of the first National Synod , via their unambiguous partisanship in successfully backing Ludwig Müller for the office of Reich bishop. He did not manage, however, to prevail over the Landeskirchen in the long term. The Confessing Church arose in resistance to
8100-576: Was organized in the aftermath of World War II to function as a new umbrella organization for German Protestant churches. As a result of tensions between West and East Germany , the regional churches in East Germany broke away from the EKD in 1969. In 1991, following German reunification , the East German churches re-joined the EKD. The member churches ( Gliedkirchen ), while being independent and having their own theological and formal organisation, share full altar and pulpit fellowship , and are united in
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