Feusdorf
Encyclopedia
Feusdorf is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality
belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde
, a kind of collective municipality – in the Vulkaneifel district
in Rhineland-Palatinate
, Germany
. It belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde of Obere Kyll
, whose seat is in the municipality of Jünkerath
.
, a part of the Eifel
known for its volcanic history, geographical and geological features, and even ongoing activity today, including gases that sometimes well up from the earth.
Feusdorf’s area is 442 ha all together, of which cropfields and open water make up 78 ha, greenbelt and heath 203 ha, private property 26 ha, woods 105 ha, public roadways 26 ha and other lands 4 ha. Flurbereinigung
was undertaken in 1968. Feusdorf lies at an elevation of 450 to 565 m above sea level
.
In 1373, Feusdorf had its first documentary mention as Feußdorf. This comes from a seal, now in the Koblenz State Archive, used by Clais (Nikolaus) von Feußdorf, who was the Burgmann
at Junckeroide (Jünkerath
).
In 1477, Wilhelm von Mirbach was enfeoffed with an estate at Feusdorf by the Duke of Jülich and Berk. In 1491, Count Johann von Manderscheid enfeoffed Nikolaus Gyse von Mertloch with several castle houses at Gerolstein
and with half a house at Feusdorf. In 1543, in connection with the clergyman Johann Schnyder’s introduction into Esch, the Servatiuskapelle (“Saint Servatius
’s Chapel”) in Feusdorf was mentioned for the first time. In 1604, Philipp Roist von Weers was enfeoffed with holdings at Feusdorf by Count Arnold von Manderscheid.
In 1631, Threin (Katharina) Heunen, a woman from Feusdorf, was burnt alive in Esch
as a witch.
In 1809, some brave men from the Mayoralty of Lissendorf opposed Napoleon’s
call to serve in his army. One of these men, named Linck, was from Feusdorf. After his house was searched, turning up four rifles, he was arrested, and shortly thereafter, along with four others, he was sentenced to death by shooting. The sentence was carried out on 23 January 1810 in Prüm
.
In 1843, Feusdorf and Hütte Jünkerath together had 21 houses and 175 inhabitants. In 1848, three houses and the chapel all burnt down, but were built again on the same sites. In 1866, many villagers came down with typhus, and the sickness claimed seven lives. For its part, the district council (Kreistag) granted the municipality 25 Thaler
for those who suffered typhus.
In 1876, the first school building was opened on Escher Straße, coming complete with a teacher’s dwelling. In 1880, there were 40 houses in Feusdorf.
Two years later, in 1882, came a year of catastrophe. The harvest was so scant that without the state’s and the province’s help, a famine emergency would have had to be declared. In 1888, 54 children were attending school, 26 boys and 28 girls, although 10 of these children came from Jünkerath
. Within a year, though, a new school also opened there, and these ten thereafter went there for their schooling.
In 1893, half-day schooling was introduced so that children could help with farmwork. The craftsmen’s association was founded. This body’s goal was to actively support members who were left without a livelihood by illness or accidents. Support was to begin with the onset of an illness and was set at two marks weekly.
In 1889, a heavy storm on 18 and 19 January damaged many roofs in Feusdorf, even leaving one house’s roof on a neighbour’s dungheap.
In late February 1900, diphtheria
broke out among the schoolchildren. Two of them, Gotthard May, 7, and Margareta Leyendecker, 9, quickly succumbed to this illness. The school was closed forthwith and lessons did not begin again for a fortnight. Another disaster befell the local steelworks that same year. On 10 May, a pan full of molten steel tipped over, spilling its contents over 25 moulders who were on the job that evening. Six of them died of their injuries, although none of these was from Feusdorf.
On 10 February 1923, Feusdorf was connected to the electricity network. It was the first village in the Daun district (now called the Vulkaneifel district) to have electrical service. In 1925, a census yielded a population figure of 346 for Feusdorf.
On 27 February 1930, the Prussia
n Ministry of State in Berlin
released a law allowing for the creation of the municipality of Jünkerath
, whereby Feusdorf was obliged to yield a certain amount of its municipal area to this new entity. Not only did it lose land area, but also about 70 of its inhabitants, who suddenly found their homes within the new municipality of Jünkerath. Feusdorf’s population had now fallen to 260.
In 1935, during excavation work for a new hunting lodge at the edge of the woods towards Esch
, an urn grave with ashes and bone remnants was unearthed, showing that human habitation in Feusdorf must go back quite a long way.
In November 1939, a great fuel storage facility was established above the village in the Esch municipal forest. This was, of course, related to the German war effort. In 1940, Feusdorf was granted permission to develop a water supply system. However, owing to the ongoing war, this would have to wait. Indeed, on 1 September 1944, owing to the critical wartime situation, the school was temporarily closed. On 29 December that same year, there came an air raid, which damaged many buildings, but rather amazingly, nobody was killed.
In late September 1945, after the fighting had ended, school began again after an interruption of more than a year when the French
occupying authorities granted leave for lessons to resume. The old schoolbooks were reused, but only after all material pertaining to the Third Reich
and Nazi ideology had been torn out. There were 55 pupils, 27 boys and 28 girls.
On 26 February 1946, the 32-man French occupying force was withdrawn from the village. At this time, the municipal boundary between Feusdorf and Alendorf
also happened to be the boundary between the French and British
zones of occupation. The checkpoint between these was set up at Hauptstraße 6.
After some measure of democracy
was restored, Anton Brang became Feusdorf’s first postwar mayor after an election held on 15 September 1946.
On Repentance and Prayer Day in November 1958, the new Warriors’ Memorial was dedicated in a ceremony for the victims of both World Wars. Of the 7,500 DM that it cost to build the memorial, 5,000 DM was covered by donations from Feusdorf citizens.
At the end of the 1968-1969 school year, the one-room school
was dissolved. Also, the old chapel was torn down, leaving only the quire standing. This was incorporated into the new church, which was consecrated on 12 April 1970. In 1969, the municipality of Feusdorf won in the contest Unser Dorf soll schöner werden (“Our village should become lovelier”).
In 1985, the municipality laid out the building development area Am Seewinkel, filling the building gap between the village and another development area, Auf Rütt. Work on this new area began that same year and was completed in 1989. A new village square was also built in 1985.
On 28 February 1990, “Hurricane Wiebke” struck Germany, laying great swathes of the country waste. Feusdorf was not spared, and several hundred cubic metres of wood were “mown around”.
at the municipal election held on 7 June 2009, and the honorary mayor as chairman.
The municipality’s arms
might in English heraldic
language be described thus: Or a stag’s attires sable fixed to the scalp argent, surmounting the attires in fesse enhanced, a label of five points gules.
Until the French Revolution
(1794), Feusdorf belonged to the Lordship of Jünkerath in the County of Blankenheim. The label – the strip with the tags pointing down – recalls this time, as it was a charge
in the arms borne by the Counts and shown surmounting a lion rampant (see Esch’s coat of arms). Also adopted into Feusdorf’s arms were the Blankenheim tincture
s, sable, Or and gules (black, gold and red). Clais von Feußdorf’s seal, mentioned above, bore a design of a stag’s antlers (“attires”), and this now forms the main charge in the municipality’s arms.
Municipalities of Germany
Municipalities are the lowest level of territorial division in Germany. This may be the fourth level of territorial division in Germany, apart from those states which include Regierungsbezirke , where municipalities then become the fifth level.-Overview:With more than 3,400,000 inhabitants, the...
belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde
Verbandsgemeinde
A Verbandsgemeinde is an administrative unit in the German Bundesländer of Rhineland-Palatinate and Saxony-Anhalt.-Rhineland-Palatinate:...
, a kind of collective municipality – in the Vulkaneifel district
Districts of Germany
The districts of Germany are known as , except in the states of North Rhine-Westphalia and Schleswig-Holstein where they are known simply as ....
in Rhineland-Palatinate
Rhineland-Palatinate
Rhineland-Palatinate is one of the 16 states of the Federal Republic of Germany. It has an area of and about four million inhabitants. The capital is Mainz. English speakers also commonly refer to the state by its German name, Rheinland-Pfalz ....
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
. It belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde of Obere Kyll
Obere Kyll
Obere Kyll is a Verbandsgemeinde in the district Vulkaneifel, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is situated on the upper course of the river Kyll, approx. 55 km south-west of Bonn. The seat of the Verbandsgemeinde is in Jünkerath.The Verbandsgemeinde Obere Kyll consists of the following...
, whose seat is in the municipality of Jünkerath
Jünkerath
Jünkerath is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Vulkaneifel district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde of Obere Kyll, and is home to its seat.- Location :Jünkerath, along with its outlying...
.
Location
The municipality lies in the VulkaneifelVulkan Eifel
The Vulkan Eifel is a region in the Eifel Mountains in Germany, that is defined to a large extent by its volcanic geological history. Characteristic of the Vulkan Eifel are its typical explosion crater lakes or maars, and numerous other signs of volcanic activity such as volcanic tuffs, lava...
, a part of the Eifel
Eifel
The Eifel is a low mountain range in western Germany and eastern Belgium. It occupies parts of southwestern North Rhine-Westphalia, northwestern Rhineland-Palatinate and the south of the German-speaking Community of Belgium....
known for its volcanic history, geographical and geological features, and even ongoing activity today, including gases that sometimes well up from the earth.
Feusdorf’s area is 442 ha all together, of which cropfields and open water make up 78 ha, greenbelt and heath 203 ha, private property 26 ha, woods 105 ha, public roadways 26 ha and other lands 4 ha. Flurbereinigung
Flurbereinigung
Flurbereinigung is the German word used to describe land reforms in various countries, especially Germany and Austria. The term can best be translated as land consolidation. Another European country where those land reforms have been carried out is France...
was undertaken in 1968. Feusdorf lies at an elevation of 450 to 565 m above sea level
Sea level
Mean sea level is a measure of the average height of the ocean's surface ; used as a standard in reckoning land elevation...
.
History
The municipality’s name has been written several ways over the centuries: Feußdorf (1373), Freuhsdorp (1555), Freußdorff (1558), Feurstorf (1658), Feustorf (1704), Feustorff (1720), Feurstorp (1729), Feußdorf (1775) and finally Feusdorf (1822).In 1373, Feusdorf had its first documentary mention as Feußdorf. This comes from a seal, now in the Koblenz State Archive, used by Clais (Nikolaus) von Feußdorf, who was the Burgmann
Burgmann
A Burgmann was a member of the low aristocracy in the Middle Ages who guarded and defended castles. They were hired by a lord of the castle to take on the burghut, the guarding and defense of a castle....
at Junckeroide (Jünkerath
Jünkerath
Jünkerath is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Vulkaneifel district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde of Obere Kyll, and is home to its seat.- Location :Jünkerath, along with its outlying...
).
In 1477, Wilhelm von Mirbach was enfeoffed with an estate at Feusdorf by the Duke of Jülich and Berk. In 1491, Count Johann von Manderscheid enfeoffed Nikolaus Gyse von Mertloch with several castle houses at Gerolstein
Gerolstein
Gerolstein is a town in the Vulkaneifel district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is the seat of the like-named Verbandsgemeinde. Gerolstein is headquarters to a large mineral water firm, Gerolsteiner Brunnen...
and with half a house at Feusdorf. In 1543, in connection with the clergyman Johann Schnyder’s introduction into Esch, the Servatiuskapelle (“Saint Servatius
Saint Servatius
Saint Servatius was bishop of Tongeren—Roman Atuatuca Tungrorum the capital of the Tungri—one of the earliest dioceses in the Low Countries. Later in his life he fled to Maastricht, Roman Mosae Trajectum, where he became the first bishop of this city...
’s Chapel”) in Feusdorf was mentioned for the first time. In 1604, Philipp Roist von Weers was enfeoffed with holdings at Feusdorf by Count Arnold von Manderscheid.
In 1631, Threin (Katharina) Heunen, a woman from Feusdorf, was burnt alive in Esch
Esch, Vulkaneifel
Esch is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Vulkaneifel district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany...
as a witch.
In 1809, some brave men from the Mayoralty of Lissendorf opposed Napoleon’s
Napoleon I
Napoleon Bonaparte was a French military and political leader during the latter stages of the French Revolution.As Napoleon I, he was Emperor of the French from 1804 to 1815...
call to serve in his army. One of these men, named Linck, was from Feusdorf. After his house was searched, turning up four rifles, he was arrested, and shortly thereafter, along with four others, he was sentenced to death by shooting. The sentence was carried out on 23 January 1810 in Prüm
Prüm
Prüm is a town in the Westeifel , Germany. Formerly a district capital, today it is the administrative seat of the Verbandsgemeinde Prüm.-Geography:...
.
In 1843, Feusdorf and Hütte Jünkerath together had 21 houses and 175 inhabitants. In 1848, three houses and the chapel all burnt down, but were built again on the same sites. In 1866, many villagers came down with typhus, and the sickness claimed seven lives. For its part, the district council (Kreistag) granted the municipality 25 Thaler
Thaler
The Thaler was a silver coin used throughout Europe for almost four hundred years. Its name lives on in various currencies as the dollar or tolar. Etymologically, "Thaler" is an abbreviation of "Joachimsthaler", a coin type from the city of Joachimsthal in Bohemia, where some of the first such...
for those who suffered typhus.
In 1876, the first school building was opened on Escher Straße, coming complete with a teacher’s dwelling. In 1880, there were 40 houses in Feusdorf.
Two years later, in 1882, came a year of catastrophe. The harvest was so scant that without the state’s and the province’s help, a famine emergency would have had to be declared. In 1888, 54 children were attending school, 26 boys and 28 girls, although 10 of these children came from Jünkerath
Jünkerath
Jünkerath is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Vulkaneifel district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde of Obere Kyll, and is home to its seat.- Location :Jünkerath, along with its outlying...
. Within a year, though, a new school also opened there, and these ten thereafter went there for their schooling.
In 1893, half-day schooling was introduced so that children could help with farmwork. The craftsmen’s association was founded. This body’s goal was to actively support members who were left without a livelihood by illness or accidents. Support was to begin with the onset of an illness and was set at two marks weekly.
In 1889, a heavy storm on 18 and 19 January damaged many roofs in Feusdorf, even leaving one house’s roof on a neighbour’s dungheap.
In late February 1900, diphtheria
Diphtheria
Diphtheria is an upper respiratory tract illness caused by Corynebacterium diphtheriae, a facultative anaerobic, Gram-positive bacterium. It is characterized by sore throat, low fever, and an adherent membrane on the tonsils, pharynx, and/or nasal cavity...
broke out among the schoolchildren. Two of them, Gotthard May, 7, and Margareta Leyendecker, 9, quickly succumbed to this illness. The school was closed forthwith and lessons did not begin again for a fortnight. Another disaster befell the local steelworks that same year. On 10 May, a pan full of molten steel tipped over, spilling its contents over 25 moulders who were on the job that evening. Six of them died of their injuries, although none of these was from Feusdorf.
On 10 February 1923, Feusdorf was connected to the electricity network. It was the first village in the Daun district (now called the Vulkaneifel district) to have electrical service. In 1925, a census yielded a population figure of 346 for Feusdorf.
On 27 February 1930, the Prussia
Prussia
Prussia was a German kingdom and historic state originating out of the Duchy of Prussia and the Margraviate of Brandenburg. For centuries, the House of Hohenzollern ruled Prussia, successfully expanding its size by way of an unusually well-organized and effective army. Prussia shaped the history...
n Ministry of State in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
released a law allowing for the creation of the municipality of Jünkerath
Jünkerath
Jünkerath is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Vulkaneifel district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde of Obere Kyll, and is home to its seat.- Location :Jünkerath, along with its outlying...
, whereby Feusdorf was obliged to yield a certain amount of its municipal area to this new entity. Not only did it lose land area, but also about 70 of its inhabitants, who suddenly found their homes within the new municipality of Jünkerath. Feusdorf’s population had now fallen to 260.
In 1935, during excavation work for a new hunting lodge at the edge of the woods towards Esch
Esch, Vulkaneifel
Esch is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Vulkaneifel district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany...
, an urn grave with ashes and bone remnants was unearthed, showing that human habitation in Feusdorf must go back quite a long way.
In November 1939, a great fuel storage facility was established above the village in the Esch municipal forest. This was, of course, related to the German war effort. In 1940, Feusdorf was granted permission to develop a water supply system. However, owing to the ongoing war, this would have to wait. Indeed, on 1 September 1944, owing to the critical wartime situation, the school was temporarily closed. On 29 December that same year, there came an air raid, which damaged many buildings, but rather amazingly, nobody was killed.
In late September 1945, after the fighting had ended, school began again after an interruption of more than a year when the French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
occupying authorities granted leave for lessons to resume. The old schoolbooks were reused, but only after all material pertaining to the Third Reich
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
and Nazi ideology had been torn out. There were 55 pupils, 27 boys and 28 girls.
On 26 February 1946, the 32-man French occupying force was withdrawn from the village. At this time, the municipal boundary between Feusdorf and Alendorf
Blankenheim, North Rhine-Westphalia
Blankenheim is a municipality in the district of Euskirchen in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.-Geography:Blankenheim is located in the Eifel hills, approx. 27 km south-west of Euskirchen...
also happened to be the boundary between the French and British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
zones of occupation. The checkpoint between these was set up at Hauptstraße 6.
After some measure of democracy
Democracy
Democracy is generally defined as a form of government in which all adult citizens have an equal say in the decisions that affect their lives. Ideally, this includes equal participation in the proposal, development and passage of legislation into law...
was restored, Anton Brang became Feusdorf’s first postwar mayor after an election held on 15 September 1946.
On Repentance and Prayer Day in November 1958, the new Warriors’ Memorial was dedicated in a ceremony for the victims of both World Wars. Of the 7,500 DM that it cost to build the memorial, 5,000 DM was covered by donations from Feusdorf citizens.
At the end of the 1968-1969 school year, the one-room school
One-room school
One-room schools were commonplace throughout rural portions of various countries including the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, United Kingdom, Ireland and Spain in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In most rural and small town schools, all of the students met in a single room...
was dissolved. Also, the old chapel was torn down, leaving only the quire standing. This was incorporated into the new church, which was consecrated on 12 April 1970. In 1969, the municipality of Feusdorf won in the contest Unser Dorf soll schöner werden (“Our village should become lovelier”).
In 1985, the municipality laid out the building development area Am Seewinkel, filling the building gap between the village and another development area, Auf Rütt. Work on this new area began that same year and was completed in 1989. A new village square was also built in 1985.
On 28 February 1990, “Hurricane Wiebke” struck Germany, laying great swathes of the country waste. Feusdorf was not spared, and several hundred cubic metres of wood were “mown around”.
Municipal council
The council is made up of 12 council members, who were elected by majority votePlurality voting system
The plurality voting system is a single-winner voting system often used to elect executive officers or to elect members of a legislative assembly which is based on single-member constituencies...
at the municipal election held on 7 June 2009, and the honorary mayor as chairman.
Coat of arms
The German blazon reads: In Gold ein schwarzes Hirschgeweih mit silbernem Grind, belegt mit rotem, fünflatzigen Turnierkragen.The municipality’s arms
Coat of arms
A coat of arms is a unique heraldic design on a shield or escutcheon or on a surcoat or tabard used to cover and protect armour and to identify the wearer. Thus the term is often stated as "coat-armour", because it was anciently displayed on the front of a coat of cloth...
might in English heraldic
Heraldry
Heraldry is the profession, study, or art of creating, granting, and blazoning arms and ruling on questions of rank or protocol, as exercised by an officer of arms. Heraldry comes from Anglo-Norman herald, from the Germanic compound harja-waldaz, "army commander"...
language be described thus: Or a stag’s attires sable fixed to the scalp argent, surmounting the attires in fesse enhanced, a label of five points gules.
Until the French Revolution
French Revolution
The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...
(1794), Feusdorf belonged to the Lordship of Jünkerath in the County of Blankenheim. The label – the strip with the tags pointing down – recalls this time, as it was a charge
Charge (heraldry)
In heraldry, a charge is any emblem or device occupying the field of an escutcheon . This may be a geometric design or a symbolic representation of a person, animal, plant, object or other device...
in the arms borne by the Counts and shown surmounting a lion rampant (see Esch’s coat of arms). Also adopted into Feusdorf’s arms were the Blankenheim tincture
Tincture (heraldry)
In heraldry, tinctures are the colours used to emblazon a coat of arms. These can be divided into several categories including light tinctures called metals, dark tinctures called colours, nonstandard colours called stains, furs, and "proper". A charge tinctured proper is coloured as it would be...
s, sable, Or and gules (black, gold and red). Clais von Feußdorf’s seal, mentioned above, bore a design of a stag’s antlers (“attires”), and this now forms the main charge in the municipality’s arms.
Buildings
- Saint Mary MagdaleneMary MagdaleneMary Magdalene was one of Jesus' most celebrated disciples, and the most important woman disciple in the movement of Jesus. Jesus cleansed her of "seven demons", conventionally interpreted as referring to complex illnesses...
’s Catholic Church (branch church), Kirchstraße 1, exposed in the quire remnants of the old Late GothicGothic architectureGothic architecture is a style of architecture that flourished during the high and late medieval period. It evolved from Romanesque architecture and was succeeded by Renaissance architecture....
or post-Gothic nave. - Escher Straße – wayside cross, sandstoneSandstoneSandstone is a sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized minerals or rock grains.Most sandstone is composed of quartz and/or feldspar because these are the most common minerals in the Earth's crust. Like sand, sandstone may be any colour, but the most common colours are tan, brown, yellow,...
shaft cross, late 18th century, at the graveyard. - Escher Straße 16 – former school, plaster building, partly slated, about 1910.