Glan-Münchweiler is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Kusel district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde of Oberes Glantal.
Geography
Location The municipality lies in a hollow in the Glan valley in the uplands in the Western Palatinate, with peaks such as the Galgenberg, the Klopfberg, the Eckertsberg and the Wingertsberg. On the Glan’s right bank, at the foot of the Hochwald (“High Forest”) lies the outlying centre of Bettenhausen. The bottom of the dale has an elevation of 215 m above sea level. The highest elevation within municipal limits lies in the Eichenwald (“Oak Forest”) at 388 m above sea level. Glan-Münchweiler lies roughly 8 km southeast of Kusel and 25 km west of Kaiserslautern. The municipal area measures 464 ha, of which 112 ha is wooded.Location
Neighbouring municipalities Glan-Münchweiler borders in the north on the municipality of Rehweiler, in the east on the municipality of Niedermohr, in the south on the municipality of Nanzdietschweiler, in the southwest on the municipality of Börsborn, in the west on the municipality of Henschtal and in the northwest on the municipality of Quirnbach.
Constituent communities Glan-Münchweiler’s Ortsteile are Glan-Münchweiler (main centre) and Bettenhausen.Constituent communities
Municipality’s layout On the terrace that juts out from the western slope into the Glan valley, monks from Hornbach Abbey established an estate in the 8th century for clearing and farming the surrounding countryside. The village core that arose here with its estate and church was fortified on the downstream side in 1344, as witnessed by “civic building”. After the Thirty Years' War, Glan-Münchweiler’s built-up area spread westwards towards what is today Marktstraße (“Market Street”). Ringstraße and Hauptstraße (“Main Street”) soon formed a residential quadrangle through which ran only one street from the village core, Kirchstraße (“Church Street”). With the opening of the building zone in the cadastral area known as “Teich” (“Pond”), the built-up area began to spread northwards in 1953 towards the slopes of the Fronberg and Galgenberg, stopping only at the ridge in many places. With the graveyard’s expansion in 1970, even Friedhofstraße (“Graveyard Street”) and the area below were opened up. The Autobahn, also finished in 1970, touches Glan-Münchweiler just at the southwest, tightly hemming the village’s development in. Only the sporting ground with its two football pitches and athletic complex could be laid out to the highway’s west. The supply road built for the Autobahn’s construction was developed after the Second World War and is now called Embachstraße. The forester’s house built in 1914 on the road leading out of Glan-Münchweiler towards Quirnbach served after the war as a kindergarten owned by the Catholic Church, although it is now under private ownership. At the turn of the millennium, Glan-Münchweiler had 27 streets and 358 houses.Municipality’s layout
History
Antiquity The village’s beginnings and first settlers lie in the time before the Christian Era. Archaeological finds of stone hatchets within Glan-Münchweiler’s limits bear witness to settlers in the New Stone Age. The barrow fields in the Eicherwald give clues as to a certain continuity in settlement in the Iron Age. Glan-Münchweiler lies at the crossroads of some old roads. Many finds from the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD show that the place was settled in Roman times. A trove of coins unearthed in 1976 in what is now the village core, along with further clues, point to a fire in 351 or 352.Antiquity
Middle Ages After the Frankish takeover of the land, the Glan-Münchweiler area passed in about the middle of the 8th century through donation into Hornbach Abbey’s ownership. About this time, the Hornbach monks established an estate (after which the municipality is named; see Municipality’s name below) for clearing and farming the land, and also built a church, some remnants of which were found in today’s church’s foundations. The Hornbach Monastery pledged the “Münchweiler Tal” (dale) in the time that followed to the Raugraves of Neuenbaumburg and Altenbaumburg. Thus, secular lords became the fiefholders in this area. In 1383, the fief passed to the Lords of Breitenborn, and shortly thereafter to the Burgmann family of Mauchenheim. Sir Georg von der Leyen wed Eva Mauchenheimer in 1468, thus beginning the long lordship of the Counts of Leyen in the “Münchweiler Tal”, which lasted until 1801. Glan-Münchweiler acquired the status of Unteramt together with the villages of Steinbach, Haschbach, Nanzweiler, Dietschweiler, Börsborn and Gries. The seat of the Oberamt was Blieskastel. The highest lord in the land remained, however, the Dukes Palatine Zweibrücken, who exercised the blanket lordship over the Hornbach Monastery. Over the centuries, this led to disputes over questions of authority. There were usually two Schultheißen, one appointed by the Counts of Leyen and the other by the Duchy of Palatinate-Zweibrücken. The first Schultheiß appointed by the Counts of Leyen in 1490 was named Andreas Stemmler, while the first one appointed by the Duchy was named Johann Jakob Röhrich.Middle Ages
Modern times The ecclesiastical, legal and social convulsions in the time of the Reformation brought new antagonisms and disputes into the “Münchweiler Tal”. The Dukes of Zweibrücken, as rightful successors to the Hornbach Monastery, were Reformed, whereas the Counts of Leyen had chosen to remain Catholic. Administration and use of landholds were forever a cause of disagreement and feuding. During the Thirty Years' War, Glan-Münchweiler was largely destroyed and plundered by Croatian mercenaries. In 1621, Glan-Münchweiler was stricken with a frightful outbreak of the Plague, which claimed most of the lives in the village. Indeed, two villages in the “Münchweiler Tal” – Reichertsweiler and Fröschweiler – died right out in the epidemic.Modern times
Recent times The French Revolution brought the hitherto prevailing lordship arrangements to an end. Imperial Countess Marianne von der Leyen, during her flight before the French Revolutionary troops, sought shelter for a week at the Evangelical rectory. The County of Leyen was dissolved in 1801; likewise liquidated was the Duchy of Palatinate-Zweibrücken. The Palatinate was now French. Münchweiler became the seat of a mairie (“mayoralty”), belonging to which were also the villages of Steinbach, Haschbach, Nanzweiler and Dietschweiler. The village now lay in the Canton of Waldmohr, the Arrondissement of Saarbrücken and the Department of Sarre. After the Palatinate’s cession to the Kingdom of Bavaria in 1816, Glan-Münchweiler was administered by the Landcommissariat of Homburg. In 1920, after the First World War, the Saar passed to France. The Canton of Waldmohr, which belonged to the Bezirksamt of Homburg, and along with it the Bürgermeisterei (“Mayoralty”) of Glan-Münchweiler, was grouped into the Kusel district. In preparation for the Battle of France in the Second World War, the Organisation Todt built a Führer Headquarters in Glan-Münchweiler, called “Waldwiese” (“Glade”). It was, however, never used as such. Since then, the complex has been completely dismantled. Considerable changes arose from the 1969-1972 administrative restructuring in Rhineland-Palatinate. On 7 June 1969, the hitherto self-administering municipality of Bettenhausen was split away from the Kaiserslautern district, grouped into the Kusel district and merged with Glan-Münchweiler to form the new municipality of Glan-Münchweiler, which itself became the seat of a newly created Verbandsgemeinde in 1972, to which also belong Börsborn, Herschweiler-Pettersheim, Hüffler, Wahnwegen, Krottelbach, Langenbach, Quirnbach, Henschtal, Steinbach am Glan, Nanzdietschweiler, Rehweiler and Matzenbach.Recent times Glan-Münchweiler retains this form to this day.Statistisches Landesamt Rheinland-Pfalz – Amtliches Gemeindeverzeichnis 2006 , Seiten 162, 177 (PDF)
Population development Of the just under 300 inhabitants in Glan-Münchweiler in 1610, only six “subjects/families” were left when the Thirty Years' War ended. In 1725 it was reported that there were shoemakers, shopkeepers, weavers and nailers who had joined together in guilds. By introducing cotton spinning as a cottage industry, opportunities to earn income were improved. Approval for trial digging for coal and other minerals was first granted in 1764. Glan-Münchweiler’s population figures rose in the 18th and 19th centuries, but only slowly. Quicker growth came only after the First World War.
The following table shows population development over the centuries for Glan-Münchweiler:Glan-Münchweiler’s population development Year 1610 1650 1825 1835 1871 1905 1919 1938 1949 1961 1970 1999 Total 300 21 536 563 577 605 708 886 1,034 1,210 1,295 1,232
Municipality’s name Sources differ on the date of first documentary mention and the name’s original form. According to Hans Weber, writing at regionalgeschichte.net, Glan-Münchweiler had its first documentary mention in 1333 as Monichwilari, derived from the Latin Monachorum Villa (“the monks’ estate”). Other names that the village has had over the ages are Monchwilre (1415), Monchwiller (1564), Münchweiler am Glan (1730), Glan-Münchweiler (as of 1885).Municipality’s name
Nevertheless, according to the Verbandsgemeinde website and authors Wilhelm Volkert and Richard Bauer, Glan-Münchweiler had its first documentary mention as Mönchweiler in 1019. Mönch is still the German word for “monk” today (this is a reference to the monks’ estate); Weiler means “hamlet”, or originally “homestead”. In 1330, the slightly different spelling of Münchweiler was used, and then in 1867, the village was known as Münchweiler am Glan. Finally, in 1885, the village settled on the name Glan-Münchweiler, which it still bears today.Wilhelm Volkert, Richard Bauer: "Handbuch der bayerischen Ämter, Gemeinden und Gerichte 1799-1980", S. 487
The sources at least agree that Bettenhausen had its first documentary mention in 1393 but they differ as to whether the original name was Bottenhusen (Weber) or Bottenhausen (Volkert et al.). Weber furthermore puts forth the notion that the village was likely named after a man named Botto; so the name Bettenhausen would mean “at Botto’s house”.
The name of the river Glan is of Celtic origin and means “fishing water” or “clean water”.
Religion