Runkel is a town on the
Lahn River in Limburg-Weilburg
district in Hesse
, Germany
.
Geography
Location
Runkel
lies in the Lahn Valley on both sides of the river between the
Westerwald
and the Taunus
, some eight
kilometres east of Limburg
.
Neighbouring communities
Runkel
borders in the north on the community of Beselich
and the town
of Weilburg
, in the east
on the communities of Weinbach
and Villmar
and in the
south and west on the town of Limburg.
Constituent communities
The town consists of 9
Stadtteile.
| Centre |
Population 1910 |
Population 2005 |
Date of amalgamation |
| Runkel |
1,109 |
1,655 |
1 December 1970 |
| Schadeck |
502 |
1,112 |
1 December 1970 |
| Steeden |
696 |
1,550 |
1 December 1970 |
| Ennerich |
317 |
865 |
1 December 1970 |
| Dehrn |
1.061 |
2.295 |
1 July 1974 |
| Hofen |
292 |
435 |
31 December 1970 |
| Eschenau |
214 |
320 |
31 December 1970 |
| Arfurt |
650 |
939 |
31 December 1970 |
| Wirbelau |
516 |
803 |
31 December 1970 |
History
Aerial photograph 2007
The town’s first documentary mention came in 1159 in an
enfeoffment document in which a nobleman named Siegfried
von Runkel had his name appear as a witness. It is believed that
this Siegfried was the one who built Runkel Castle. In 1191
Siegfried married a countess of Katzenelnbogen. This high noble
family forced Dietrich of Runkel to open his castles Runkel and
Dehrn. No later than 1230, the
castle had a
chapel, thereby giving Runkel its first
church building. In 1288, after
years of family disputes, the Lords of Runkel and those of
Westerburg sundered into two lines. In 1440, building work began on
the Lahn
bridge, but owing to the rift
between the Runkels and the Westerburgs, the work took until 1448.
In 1447 Count Philipp of Katzenelnbogen was the liege lord.
In 1543, Count Johann IV of
Wied had
Philipp Melanchthon as a guest at Runkel
Castle. In 1568, the
Reformation was introduced. In 1622,
there was yet another family rift when Count Hermann II at Wied
drove his younger brother Philipp Ludwig out of the leadership and
indeed from the castle. In 1634, the town and the castle were
largely destroyed by Count Johann Ludwig Hektor von Isolani’s
troops in the
Thirty Years' War.
In 1649, the castle’s dwelling buildings were newly built as a
residential castle.
In the
early 1700s, continued French invasions combined with a record cold
winter led many people from the Palatinate, including Runkel an
Lahn, to emigrate down the Rhine River
, then to England
in
1709. There were so many refugees from the German Palatine
region that the English government set up a tent city for the
winter outside the London walls.
In 1710 ten English ships carried nearly
3,000 Germans to the colony of New York
. The people worked off their passage in
camps on the
Hudson River.
In 1723 and later they
were finally allowed to acquire land in New York's Mohawk Valley, where they established towns
such as German
Flatts
and Palatine Bridge, New York
.
In 1791, Friedrich Ludwig, the last of the Wied-Runkel line, was
made a prince.
In 1796, fighting in Runkel’s streets broke
out as troops of the Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt
drove French
revolutionary occupying soldiers out of town.
In 1806,
the Runkel holdings on the Lahn’s right bank, and thereby the part
of the town of Runkel lying there, passed to the Duchy of Berg
. In 1824, the Wied-Runkel line died out with
Prince Friedrich Ludwig’s death, putting the lordly domain, along
with the town of Runkel, in Wied-Neuwied’s hands.
Winegrowing is known to have been
practised in Runkel as of 1270. In 1929, however, it was given up
after the
phylloxera infestation and a
cold winter. In the end, the vinicultural area amounted to 35
hectares.
In 1860, the first
savings
and loan association (
Sparkasse) in Runkel was founded
under the name
Vorschuss-Verein (“Credit Club”). Since
1914 there has been a central
water
supply in the town.
In the course of administrative reform in Hesse, the formerly
autonomous communities of Steeden, Ennerich and Schadeck merged on
1 December 1970, as did likewise Arfurt, Eschenau, Hofen and
Wirbelau on 31 December 1970, with the town of Runkel. The
community of Dehrn was only amalgamated on 1 July 1974 by state
law.
The outlying centre with the earliest documentary mention is
Ennerich, which can prove its existence in 790.
Politics
Town council
The municipal election held on 26 March 2006 yielded the following
results:
Culture and sightseeing
Buildings
Runkel Castle above the Lahn
- The ruins of Runkel Castle from the 12th century, expanded in
the 14th century, destroyed in 1634.
- The timber-frame houses from the
17th and 18th centuries
- The stone Lahn Bridge from the 13th century
- Schadeck Castle from the 13th century
- The Bannmühle was built jointly by Runkel and Schadeck
upstream before the town wall. Since 1800 it has been privately
owned. Since 1972 it has no longer been used as a mill, but rather for generating electricity, having been fitted
with a turbine.
- The town wall’s former watchtower today houses the Evangelical church’s bells. It
was destroyed by fire in 1634 and 1700. The first bell was hung in
1725; the last was installed in 1986.
- The parish school building, the first school in Runkel, comes
from 1543.
- The former parish house was built in 1664, later passed into
private ownership and was the town hall during the Second World War.
- The Evangelical church was built on the site of a former church
that was built in 1511 and burnt down in 1634.
- As of 1802, work began on a widow’s seat for Prince Christian
Ludwig’s mother. When she died the next year, only the basement
level had been finished. The site lay idle until the town bought it
and from 1821 to 1825 built a new school building there that in the
beginning also housed part of the municipal administration and a
guardroom. Today the building houses a kindergarten.
- The Burgmannen-Sitz of the
Barons of Schütz von Holzhausen was first mentioned in 1424. In
1651 the building was modernized. As of 1718 it was owned by the
Counts of Wied and served until 1811 as the official dwelling of
their chancellory heads.
- Today’s Amtsapotheke (Amt apothecary’s shop)
was built as a dwelling for an Amtmann (roughly, bailiff).
In 1818 the open (that is, not plastered) timber-frame building
passed into the apothecary’s ownership.
- The house of the old Latin school
comes from 1711. After 1800 it was the town hall and until 1818 the
court apothecary’s shop. Later the “Zur Traube” guesthouse was
located there.
Runkel Town Hall, former
Amt
courthouse
- The town hall stands on the plot that was once the princely
orange garden. From 1883 to 1887 work proceeded on the Prussian provincial administration building. The
town hall has been there since 1966.
- The building that was once the Amt courthouse housed a brewery shortly after 1900 and the “Zum Adler”
guesthouse.
- The fountain on Schlossplatz is said to
be a model example for artistic cast iron
works.
- The former princely stockyard with its tithe barn stands at Schlossplatz. It was built after
the town was laid waste in the Thirty
Years' War, and expanded in the 19th century. Today the
fire station and clubhouse are found
there.
- The old town hall stands on the site of the former
Amtshaus that Count Wilhelm IV of Runkel-Wied had built in
1596 and later transferred to his court physician, Dr. Ersfeld. Ersfeld built the building
anew after it had burnt down in the 1634 town fire, as did later
his son, who succeeded him in his office, after the building burnt
down once again in 1691. From 1787 to 1965 it was the town hall.
Today it is privately owned.
Economy and infrastructure
Transport
The town
is linked to the long-distance road network through the Limburg-Süd
interchange on the A 3 (Cologne–Frankfurt
), 7 km away.
Runkel
has a railway station on the
Lahntalbahn (Koblenz
-Limburg-Runkel-Wetzlar
-Gießen
) at which
only regional trains stop. The
town lies within the
Rhein-Main-Verkehrsverbund
area.
Education
In Runkel is found the
Johann-Christian-Senckenberg-Schule. This is a
primary school,
Hauptschule and
Realschule with a
Förderstufe (a
programme for streaming students into the secondary school best
suited to their needs). It was named after the German physician and
endower Johann Christian Senckenberg.
Further primary schools are found in Arfurt, Dehrn, Steeden and
Runkel.
Students
from Runkel also attend the Gymnasien in Limburg and Weilburg.
Public institutions
- Evangelische Kindertagesstätte "Pusteblume" Runkel (daycare)
- Katholischer Kindergarten "St. Michael" Arfurt
- Katholischer Kindergarten "St. Nikolaus" Dehrn
- Kindergarten "Regenbogenland" Ennerich
- Kindergarten "Konfetti" Steeden
- Kindergarten "Wirbelwind" Wirbelau
- Runkel Volunteer Fire Brigade,
founded 1925 (includes Youth Fire Brigade)
- Arfurt Volunteer Fire Brigade, founded 1901 (includes Youth
Fire Brigade)
- Dehrn Volunteer Fire Brigade, founded 1898 (includes Youth Fire
Brigade)
- Ennerich Volunteer Fire Brigade, founded 1934 (includes Youth
Fire Brigade)
- Eschenau Volunteer Fire Brigade, founded 1934 (includes Youth
Fire Brigade)
- Hofen Volunteer Fire Brigade, founded 1934 (includes Youth Fire
Brigade)
- Schadeck Volunteer Fire Brigade, founded 1933 (includes Youth
Fire Brigade)
- Steeden Volunteer Fire Brigade, founded 1934 (includes Youth
Fire Brigade)
- Wirbelau Volunteer Fire Brigade, founded 1934 (includes Youth
Fire Brigade)
External links
References
- http://www.graf-von-katzenelnbogen.de/ The History of the
County of Katzenelnbogen and the First Riesling of the World
Wikis
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