Waldmohr () is a town in the Kusel district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde Oberes Glantal.
Geography
Location The municipality lies at the western end of the Landstuhl Marsh (a depression), right at the state boundary with the Saarland roughly 15 km southwest of Kusel, and 10 km north of Homburg. Spreading out along a length of the Glan into the hills on each side, Waldmohr's municipal area reaches elevations of 362 m above sea level at the Waldziegelhütte (an outlying centre whose name means “forest brickworks”) and 234 m above sea level at the Eichelscheid (another outlying centre). The chain of hills, Steines, Fuchsberg, Bolsten, Schachen and Heidenkopf with Oehlbühl, which slope down to the south towards the Glan, and the mountain ridges, Häupel, Mühlfeld, Härtel, and Krämmel, which even out gently towards the north and east, are heavily settled along the greater thoroughfares leading to the heart of the village. Landesstraße 355 bypasses the village to the east and links it to the Autobahn. The river Glan, which rises in neighbouring Höchen, receives considerable contributions at Waldmohr's municipal limit, where the Branschbach and the Mörschbach empty into it at the edge of the Dörrberg. Several big ponds (Dörrbergweiher and Mohrmühlweiher) and many fishing ponds enrich the landscape's appearance. The old tank trench at the Eichelscheiderhof has long been a renaturated stretch of the GlanLocation
Neighbouring municipalities Waldmohr borders in the north on the municipality of Schönenberg-Kübelberg, in the east on the municipality of Bruchmühlbach-Miesau, in the south on the town of Homburg (not to be confused with the municipality of Homberg), in the west on the town of Bexbach and in the northwest on the municipality of Dunzweiler.
Constituent communities Waldmohr's Ortsteile are Waldmohr (main centre), Eichelscheiderhof (10) and Waldziegelhütte (112). Also belonging to Waldmohr are the outlying homesteads of Bahnhaus (5), Bolsterhof (14), Erlenhof (6), Mohrmühle (24), Oehlbühlerhof (2), Waldhaus (3) and Autobahnrasthaus (0). Figures in parentheses are population figures as of 2000.
Eichelscheiderhof Originally a noble estate belonging to the Duchy of Palatine Zweibrücken, the Eichelscheiderhof once stood within Jägersburg's municipal limits. With the formation of the Saar zone of occupation under a League of Nations mandate in 1920, the estate was split from Jägersburg and added to Waldmohr. The name first crops up in Tielemann Stella's writings from 1587 as Eichenschitt, and refers to the wealth of oaktrees in the area (Eiche means “oak” in German). The Eichelscheider Hof itself had its first documentary mention at the time of its founding in 1704. While the Jägersburg Hunting Palace (Jagdschloss Jägersburg) was being built near the district seat of Homburg, the estate was converted into a lordly stud farm, serving the famous Zweibrücken breeding until the end of the Second World War. Napoleon’s parade horse came from the Eichelscheider Hof. The stables are laid out horseshoe-shaped with a great inner yard, and parts have been converted to dwellings. The gateway dominates the estate's appearance. To the right of the stables stands the former manor house. The village of Jägersburg belonged wholly to Waldmohr. Only when the Saar was occupied in 1918 was Jägersburg taken away from Waldmohr. Jägersburg thereby became a self-administering municipality, although it has since been merged into Homburg.
Municipality’s layout The very old linking roads to neighbouring villages are mostly still preserved and usable. The economically important forest paths used for logging and hiking are maintained and in good condition, whereas others are being reclaimed by the wilderness and are disappearing. Farm lanes, too, are only passable if the fields that they reach are still being used. During the Flurbereinigung undertaken in the late 1950s, which saw various parcels of land consolidated, many fieldpaths were swept away. As of 1990, the municipality of Waldmohr had all together 563.9 ha of wooded land, of which 365 ha was state-owned, 159.3 ha was municipally owned and 39.6 ha was privately owned. As of 1983, Waldmohr had an area of 1 307 ha, of which 363 ha, or 27.2%, was under agricultural use. According to the municipal plan, 18.5 ha is given over to existing bodies of water. Various rural cadastral names point to historical ownership, location, particular soil conditions or former bodies of water. A few examples include: Kirchelborn or Kirckelborn, Spickelberg, Warbach, Bolsten, Häupel, Heiligenwald, etc. In 1901, the forestry office building came into service. The region over which it holds sway is today one of the biggest in the Palatinate. In 1257, the Mohrmühle, one of the oldest mills in the region, had its first documentary mention. The old mill, where from sometime before 1610 until 1645 in the Thirty Years' War direct ancestors of former President of Germany Richard von Weizsäcker lived, is now a destination for outings with a restaurant. In the 1960s, another old mill, the Waldmohrer Mühle, built in 1715, was falling into ever greater disrepair and ended up being torn down. Only a couple of rural cadastral names (in den Mühlwiesen, auf dem Mühlfeld) now recall the actual mill. It was both a gristmill and a sawmill in its time. Three outlying farmsteads (Aussiedlerhöfe) are still worked nowadays. These are Oehlbühlerhof (founded in 1958; area 0.9 ha), Bolsterhof (founded in 1958; area 0.9 ha) and Erlenhof (founded in 1965; area 0.8 ha). The Oehlbühlerhof is tended by the owner of the Erlenhof.Municipality’s layout
History In 830, Waldmohr had its first documentary mention in the Lorsch codex as villa Moraha – “village on the boggy brook”. In 1449, the village passed into the lordship of the Dukes of Palatine Zweibrücken and remained under their rule until the duchy itself was swept away by the events of the French Revolution in 1794. Under French rule, Waldmohr became the seat of the like-named canton in the Department of Sarre, thus beginning the village's history as an administrative seat. After the French occupation ended, the Palatinate passed to the Kingdom of Bavaria, with Waldmohr retaining its function as the cantonal seat for 57 villages between Kirkel and Glan-Münchweiler. It lost its place as such only after the separation of the Saar after the First World War. In 1920, Waldmohr was assigned to the Bezirksamt of Kusel and downgraded to a Bezirksamt branch location. In 1946, it was grouped into the then newly founded state of Rhineland-Palatinate, and in 1971, when it became the seat of the Verbandsgemeinde of Waldmohr, it regained some of its lost glory.
Antiquity The barrows that go back to middle Late Hallstatt times (about 550 BC) on both sides of the Rhineland-Palatinate-Saarland boundary in the Kuhwald (“Cow Forest”) visibly bear witness even today to early settlement, and after archaeological digs at two of them in 1995 and 1996 they became an attraction for those interested in history. The old highway is still today recognizable along almost its whole length, and much broader than an ordinary country path. In various descriptions from the 14th to the 16th century, it is called the Mohrerweg or Landstraße von Mor nach Erbach (“Highway from Mor to Erbach”), with Mor or Mohr in each case referring to Waldmohr (the prefix Wald— simply means “forest”). Long-settled villagers still speak today of the old Homburger Weg (Erbach lies near Homburg, and is today a constituent community of that town), while in Erbach, it is seen as the Waldmohrer Weg. This east-west road link is of Roman origin, if not even older. After the Romans withdrew in the early 5th century, the region was almost empty of people, and only once the Franks had come to take the land was it slowly settled once more. In this time, the Bliesgau was grouped administratively into Francia.Antiquity
Middle Ages The placename Moraha was used for centuries more, even after the name Waltmore had had its first documentary mention in 1418. From 1190 to 1441, a knightly family named “von Moran” was mentioned as being among the vassals of the Counts of Homburg. Several times, the counts pledged the village and court of More, or at least parts thereof, for example, between 1383 and 1410 to the Counts of Veldenz, and once again to the same noble house between 1449 and 1475. In 1312, forty farmers were living in Waldmohr. From 1475 to 1815, the Schultheißerei of Waldmohr belonged to the Duchy of Palatine Zweibrücken. As early as 1404, Waldmohr was mentioned as being the seat of a lower court.Middle Ages
Modern times In 1535, the Reformation was introduced, after a parish had existed since at least 1219 according to records. The existence of a school in Waldmohr is mentioned for the first time in a 1564 Visitation report. In 1605 came the first mention of an actual schoolhouse. In 1609, the village had 225 Reformed inhabitants at 42 “hearth places” (for which, read “households”). Waldmohr did not fare well in the Thirty Years' War, when troops burnt it down in 1622 and destroyed it utterly in 1635. In 1688 and 1689, the village was once again beset and burnt down in the Nine Years' War (known in Germany as the Pfälzischer Erbfolgekrieg, or War of the Palatine Succession). From 1679 to 1697, Waldmohr – along with the whole region – found itself under French rule. In 1701, a new schoolhouse was built. In 1704, the Eichelscheiderhof had its first documentary mention, as did the Waldziegelhütte in 1749. Between 1752 and 1757, Duke Christian IV had the Eichelscheiderhof stud farm built on the site of the estate of that name. It was built in the shape of a small palatial residence with its gateway into the horseshoe-shaped complex.
In 1765, near the old village church auf der Fels (“On the Cliff”), the new Evangelical church was consecrated. In 1775, a directory of Reformed parishioners (for Waldmohr only), not counting shepherds, menservants or maidservants, listed 54 men, 71 women, 91 boys and 89 girls. The parish belonged until the establishment of the Oberamt of Homburg in 1781 to the Inspection of Zweibrücken, to which the village also belonged administratively.
From 1798 to 1815, Waldmohr was seat of the like-named canton in the Department of Sarre, and seat, too, of a mairie (“mayoralty”), belonging to which were Waldmohr, Jägersburg, Kleinottweiler, Höchen, Frohnhofen, Breitenbach, Altenkirchen and Dittweiler. Besides Waldmohr, the canton also included Kübelberg, Schönenberg, Sand, Miesau, Elschbach, Scheidenberg (Schanzer Mühle), Ohmbach and Brücken. The canton belonged to the Arrondissement of Saarbrücken. An 1812 record mentions a cantonal prison in Waldmohr. In 1813, Waldmohr had 683 inhabitants.Modern times
Recent times Beginning in 1816, after Napoleon’s downfall and the Congress of Vienna, Waldmohr belonged to the Kingdom of Bavaria, within which it was once again seat of the like-named canton, but now within the Landcommissariat of Homburg in the Rheinkreis (the Palatinate under Bavarian rule). The Canton of Waldmohr now contained 57 villages, estates and mills. That same year, the village was given a magistrates’ court. In 1824, the common schoolhouse was built on Bahnhofstraße (“Railway Station Street”). A new steeple was dedicated in 1831 on the occasion of the Silver Jubilee of King Maximilian I Joseph's coronation. In 1834, the municipality founded Catholic education. Completed in 1850 was the town hall, which also housed the court, which from the very beginning caused a space problem. Only in 1901 could the municipality open its own courthouse – today a community centre – and at the same time a forester's office across the street. In 1855, a post office was set up in Waldmohr, in its own building.