Riesweiler

Riesweiler
Municipality
Coat of arms
Location of Riesweiler within Rhein-Hunsrück-Kreis district
Riesweiler Riesweiler
Coordinates:49°57′35″N7°33′27″E
Country	Germany
State	Rhineland-Palatinate
District	Rhein-Hunsrück-Kreis
Municipal assoc.	Simmern-Rheinböllen
Government
•Mayor(2019–24)	Johannes Herrmann
Area
• Total	16.81 km2(6.49 sq mi)
Elevation	450 m (1,480 ft)
Population (2022-12-31)
• Total	781
• Density	46/km2(120/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC+01:00(CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+02:00(CEST)
Postal codes	55499
Dialling codes	06761
Vehicle registration	SIM
Website	www.riesweiler.de

Riesweileris anOrtsgemeinde– amunicipalitybelonging to aVerbandsgemeinde,a kind of collective municipality – in theRhein-Hunsrück-Kreis(district) inRhineland-Palatinate,Germany.It belongs to theVerbandsgemeindeSimmern-Rheinböllen,whose seat is inSimmern.

The village centre

Geography

Location

The municipality lies at the north foot of the Soonwald, a heavily wooded section of the west-centralHunsrück,roughly 2 km southeast ofSimmernand 9 km southwest of Rheinböllen. Within Riesweiler’s limits is the district’s highest peak at 653 m abovesea level,the Simmerkopf.

History

Riesweiler might have had aRomanpast, for it lies on an oldRoman road.In 1135, Riesweiler had its first documentary mention. According to historical researchers, though, Riesweiler must already have existed by 995, when the oldest royal estate, “Denzen” was donated byKing Otto IIIto his stalwart, Bezelin. Already in this time, the name Riesweiler (then in the formRiswillri) was cropping up.

TheEremitage Maria Reizenbornnear Riesweiler, reconstructed since 1980, was from the 12th to 14th century a resting place onSaint James’s Way,thepilgrimageroute toSantiago de Compostela,the section of which running fromFrankfurtandMainzby way ofBingentoTriercrossed the Soonwald ridges betweenStrombergandKirchberg.

The oldest directory of Riesweiler’s inhabitants goes back to 1567. It is a taxation register, and is also the oldest document of this kind dealing with Riesweiler. It lists the taxpayers’ names, and the amounts that they had to pay.

The 17th century brought Riesweiler neediness and hardship. Two wars, theThirty Years' Warand theNine Years' War(known in Germany as thePfälzischer Erbfolgekrieg,or War of the Palatine Succession) brought misery, calamity and, for a while, at least, an end to a once blossoming land. At this time, there were 37 houses in Riesweiler.

Monastic lordship was followed byElectoral Palatinate’s rule. Beginning in 1794, Riesweiler lay underFrenchrule. In 1814 it was assigned to the Kingdom ofPrussiaat theCongress of Vienna.

In the summer of 1813, a fire broke out in Riesweiler that all but destroyed the village. How the fire started and how many houses and buildings were lost was unfortunately not written down. It has been established, however, that only a few houses were left standing, and 55 people were injured in the fire.

In the time offaminein the early 19th century, many people from Riesweiler turned their backs on the village and emigrated.

TheFirstandSecond World Warsalso left their mark on Riesweiler. In the Second World War, many buildings were destroyed inartillerybarrages. Grimmer still was the toll taken on the villagers themselves. Almost every household lost a relative, a loved one or a friend. All together, the two wars claimed 76 lives locally, 19 of whom were listed asmissing.

Since 1946, Riesweiler has been part of the then newly foundedstateofRhineland-Palatinate.

After the Second World War came reconstruction. Municipal councils at the time quickly recognized the importance of a “growing” village. As early as the 1960s, new building zones were being laid out. At the same time, efforts were brought to bear on modernizing the village centre and building a multipurpose hall, theSoonblickhalle,which was dedicated in 1979.

In the 1980s, a further building zone was laid out, and attention was directed at building a bypass road, which was finished in the early 1990s, affording Riesweiler some relief from through traffic, especially heavy vehicles.

With the building of cycle paths, which are all linked to the Hunsrück cycle path network, and the provision of guest rooms, Riesweiler has grown into something more than simply a local recreational area.

Since the late 1960s, Riesweiler has employed a full-time municipal worker whose job is not simply to oversee and maintain municipal institutions, squares and paths, but also to render services in the municipality.

Population development

What follows is a table of the town’s population figures for selected years since the early 19th century (each time at 31 December):

Historical population

Year Pop. ±% 1815 423 — 1835 516 +22.0% 1871 519 +0.6% 1905 583 +12.3% 1939 554 −5.0%	Year Pop. ±% 1950 645 +16.4% 1961 613 −5.0% 1965 618 +0.8% 1970 643 +4.0% 1975 604 −6.1%	Year Pop. ±% 1980 668 +10.6% 1985 651 −2.5% 1987 702 +7.8% 1990 716 +2.0% 1995 747 +4.3%	Year Pop. ±% 2000 726 −2.8% 2005 741 +2.1% 2006 724 −2.3% 2009 745 +2.9%
Source:Statistisches Landesamt Rheinland-Pfalz

Politics

Municipal council

The council is made up of 12 council members, who were elected byproportional representationat the municipal election held on 7 June 2009, and the honorary mayor as chairman.

The municipal election held on 7 June 2009 yielded the following results:

	SPD	WG	Total
2009	-	12	12 seats
2004	5	7	12 seats

Mayor

Riesweiler’s mayor is Johannes Herrmann.

Coat of arms

The municipality’sarmsmight be described thus: Per fess an endorse argent between sable a lion’s head erased Or langued gules and gules a fleur-de-lis of the first, and argent a tree eradicated vert.

Culture and sightseeing

Jahnstraße 2: Evangelical church

Buildings

The following are listed buildings or sites inRhineland-Palatinate’s Directory of Cultural Monuments:

• Evangelicalchurch, Jahnstraße 2 –aisleless church,marked 1763; whole complex of buildings with graveyard
• At Gemündener Straße 4 –Classicistdoor
• At Soonwaldstraße 6 – Classicist door
• Eremitage Maria Reizenborn(monumental zone) – foundation remnants of the pilgrimage church and hermitage, 18th century; spring enclosure (see also below)

Eremitage Maria Reizenborn

High up in the forest is theRäzebore– a dialectal variant of the name “Reizenborn” – a monument to a hermit. In an outdoor forest church above the hermitage, well attended church services are held in summer under the open sky. According to one theory, the originalCelticinhabitants already had a worshipping place at thisspring(the—bornpart of the name) in pre-Christian times ringed with stone god figures. After Christianization in theMiddle Ages,the monumental heads of the idols that remained were taken on orders from Archboshop of MainzWilligissometime about 1000 and incorporated into the walls of Riesweiler’s first church, and into its successor buildings as well. One of the sculptures can be seen outside in the west gable, while inside, two others bear the gallery as brackets. Typologically, these ancient works in stone are immediately related to the god figures from Mont Beuvray (Bibracte) and the idols from a Celtic sanctuary in theSeine’s headwaters, now kept at theMusée archéologiqueinDijon.

Economy and infrastructure

Transport

Transport links to the national road network are afforded byBundesstraße50, which runs by the village only a few hundred metres away. Riesweiler’s cycle paths are linked to the Hunsrück cycle path network. TheSchinderhannes-Soonwald-Radweg(cycle path) runs through the village on its way fromGemündentoSimmern.

See also

Blieskastelalso has an outlying centre named "Riesweiler".

External links

• Official website(in German)
• Brief portrait of Riesweiler with filmatSWR Fernsehen(in German)