Raversbeuren
Encyclopedia
Raversbeuren is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality
belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde
, a kind of collective municipality – in the Rhein-Hunsrück-Kreis (district
) in Rhineland-Palatinate
, Germany
. It belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde of Kirchberg
, whose seat is in the like-named town
.
between the Hunsrückhöhenstraße (“Hunsrück Heights Road”, a scenic road across the Hunsrück built originally as a military road on Hermann Göring
’s orders) and the Moselle. Raversbeuren borders directly on Frankfurt-Hahn Airport
, and is a residential community with an agricultural
character. The municipal area measures 5.14 km², of which 1.93 km² is wooded.
chips were also found.
Notable are the great many graves from late Hallstatt times
(roughly 600 to 500 BC). Almost every hilltop harbours such graves. It has been established that some burial grounds were used over a number of centuries. Tribes and customs changed over time.
It is quite clear that there was a building from Roman
times within municipal limits. Coins from Maximian
’s time, just after Diocletian
’s time in power (AD 204 to 305), have been found. Three further settlements existed not far from the municipal limit, among which was the great manor on what is now the estate lands. Smaller finds come to light almost every time that a major excavation is undertaken.
In 908, Raversbeuren had its first documentary mention when Carolingian King Louis the Child
donated the royal estate that he held at Raversbeuren to the Archbishopric of Trier, then headed by Archbishop Ratbod.
In the Frankish
Empire’s early days, Raversbeuren belonged to the Nahegau
. The Gau counts were the Emichones
. Later, sometime before 1125, it passed, likely with Enkirch
, as it was a branch of that parish, into the hereditary ownership of the Count of Sponheim
. Administration of the royal estate was transferred to the Ravengiersburg Monastery.
It was in the 13th century that the Raversbeuren churchtower was built for what was then only a chapel
. From about the same time comes the “small” bell bearing the Latin
inscription in uppercase Gothic letters: MAGISTER CONRADUS DE WORMATIA FECIT * MARIA VOCOR* (“Master Conrad from Worms
made me; I am called Maria”). According to the Glockenatlas (“Bell Atlas”), “Maria” is said to be Germany’s oldest bell that actually bears the bellfounder’s name.
In 1374, reports of Flagellant
s in Raversbeuren crop up. in 1422, the local lordships furnished horsemen for the struggle
against the Hussite
s.
In 1511, the Ravengiersburg Monastery, whose prior at this time was Kaspar von Grünberg, had its considerable monastic holding at Raversbeuren, measuring 120 Morgen
, leased. The hereditary leaseholder exercised lower jurisdiction (that is, not blood court
) in the village. The leaseholder’s house was thus known as Anwalt’s (Anwalt being German
for “lawyer”); even today, a local rural cadastral area still bears the name “Anwaltsland”. The later hereditary leaseholding family remained the only Catholics in Raversbeuren through the introduction of the Reformation
in 1545 and 1557, even centuries later.
In 1515, the village counted nine dwellers with townsman’s rights. Any feudal underlings that they may have had are not mentioned.
For a few decades there were boundary disputes and protracted court proceedings (1549 to 1553) with the municipality of Briedel
, which apparently went all the way to the Reichskammergericht
before being resolved. There also followed differences in opinion as to the alignment of boundaries with other neighbouring municipalities.
The Plague beset Raversbeuren more than once. It came to the area in 1567, and again in 1621. This second outbreak came during the Thirty Years' War
, which brought its own hardship and misery. Early in the war, in 1619, the Spaniards
plundered Raversbeuren. On 6 November 1620, they came ransacking once more. They molested the village a third time, on 16 June 1622. On 17 December 1631, three companies of Swedish
troops defeated ten companies of Spaniards in battle, but the Swedes treated Raversbeuren no better, and indeed so badly “that not one head of livestock was left”. Even Croats
were mentioned along with the Swedes. On 21 June 1633, the Swedes showed up in the village once again, robbing it of, among other things, eight horses. In September 1634, the French
sacked Raversbeuren. Two months later, the Swedes came yet again.
A record from 14 January 1630 shows that Abbot Mathias of Himmerod Abbey
in the Eifel
had meadows in Rabersbeuren leased for a term of 24 years for 6 Moselgulden a year. According to old taxation registers, the Counts Kratz of Scharffenstein also had minor holdings – meadows – in Raversbeuren.
In a later document, the village is named as Ravenssteyer; it was then in the Schultheiß
erei of Unzenberg. After the Counts of Sponheim had died out in 1437, and after their heritable holdings had been shared out, the eastern stretch of Raversbeuren’s municipal area became a three-state common point, shared by Baden
, the Electorate of Trier and Electoral Palatinate.
A village record from 11 July 1727 gives a thorough report about how the Rhinegraves’ and Waldgraves’ subjects were transferred to the Elector Palatine (Heidelberg
). Of 29 townsmen, 26 were named all together, 9 of them Palatine subjects, 13 of them Obersteinisch (that is, belonging to the Rhinegraves and Waldgraves at Castle Dhaun) and 6 Sponheimisch (likely the Veldenz-Zweibrücken line). In 1767, there were 24 townsmen.
As to what year Raversbeuren’s church was built, nothing is known. In 1707, the whole church but for the tower was torn down, and a new building arose. It contains a gallery with balustrade-field paintings from the 18th century and a Stumm organ
.
The first clergyman in Raversbeuren mentioned after the Reformation was Johann Rühling. He worked as a minister in both Raversbeuren and Lötzbeuren
. From 1664 to 1715, this office was held by Barthel Wagner. The local minister was put in charge of all Lutheran
communities within the Oberamt of Simmern. Mentioned in 1723 as the local teacher was Johann Heinrich Barthelmes.
Under Napoleon
, after an end had been put to the tangle of small lordships in the wake of the French Revolution
, all monastic lands were auctioned off and became farmland. Under the French flag, quite a few men from Raversbeuren took part in Napoleon’s campaign against Russia
, while on the way back, many also fought under the Prussia
n flag against the French in the War of the Sixth Coalition
.
During the war years from 1806 to 1815, there was great hardship. Municipalities found themselves burdened with war debts. Charcoal
from felled forests brought very little money in. The municipality auctioned off great swathes of land. The main burden was borne, as it so often is, by individual citizens. As was so everywhere in Germany, many people from Raversbeuren emigrated to the New World
. The main destination was Brazil
, and more particularly Rio de Janeiro
, Rio Grande do Sul
and Porto Alegre
. Despite the general state of neediness, it was in this time that the old watermain, a channel first mentioned about 1670, was renovated with masonry pipes. In 1895, the watermain was renovated yet again, this time with cast-iron
pipes; these are still in use today.
Beginning in 1794, Raversbeuren lay under French
rule. In 1815 it was assigned to the Kingdom of Prussia
at the Congress of Vienna
.
In 1857 and 1858, a new municipal bakehouse was built with a hall upstairs. The next year a great fire burnt many barns and houses to ashes. A later fire in 1893 was confined to two barns, although one of these housed the big threshing machine, which was also destroyed. It had been bought in 1871, after the formation of a village corporation, along with a traction engine
from Heinrich Lanz AG
of Mannheim
. It was the third machine delivered by this well known company. Even today, there is still a communally run threshing set in Raversbeuren. Also about 1871, a village livestock insurance
plan was established.
In the 1880s, Flurbereinigung
was already being discussed in Raversbeuren, sometimes heatedly. Nevertheless, actual preparations for rationalizing the confusion of property lines in the municipality did not begin until 1912. Work carried on through the First World War, ending only in 1924.
Seven men from Raversbeuren fell in the First World War. Eighteen made the ultimate sacrifice in the Second World War. Before the Americans
marched in on 17 March 1945, the village had suffered considerable damage in a three-day (14–16 March 1945) artillery
barrage. One barn had burnt right down. Worse yet, 16 people – both military and civilian – had been killed; there were also quite a few wounded.
In 1937 a new shed was built for the communal threshing machine. Even during the war, infrastructure improvements continued: the waterworks were expanded by a newly bored spring
. In 1947 and 1948, a new communal barn with livestock stable was built, and the following year, and electrically driven communal mill at the upper entrance to Raversbeuren replaced the four watermill
s.
Although the municipality’s economic circumstances were rather circumscribed by the French occupation’s seizure of almost all the spruce
trees that were fit for felling, enough trees could be obtained from the last few suitable ones that the French had left, and through the purchase from the French of more from the stock that they had harvested to build a new schoolhouse in 1951. Promised assistance from the then newly founded state
of Rhineland-Palatinate
, to which Raversbeuren had belonged since 1946, never materialized.
The community centre was expanded and rebuilt in 1956 to accommodate the village’s growing needs.
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: Azure in chief a bell on a yoke and two ears of rye conjoined on a stem leafed of two Or, and in base a wellhouse with a well boom with pail argent.
The bell is Maria, mentioned above, held to be Germany’s oldest bell that has its maker’s name on it. The ears of rye symbolize the municipality’s former agricultural
character. The well, believed to have come into being in the late 18th century and still preserved now, was once an important source of water for the villagers.
’s Directory of Cultural Monuments:
’s municipal limits, near Margaretenhof, a Roman villa rustica
was discovered and in 1875 investigated and partly unearthed by the Rheinisches Landesmuseum Bonn
. The estate complex, not counting outlying buildings, covered an area of 41 × 26 m. More than 30 rooms were laid bare. The occupants had running water, brought in through lead
en pipes. The estate existed into late Roman times.
, a municipality on the Moselle, where the festival was held until 1985. It moved to its current location after complaints from tenant hunters (Jagdpächter).
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 Rhein-Hunsrück-Kreis (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 Kirchberg
Kirchberg (Verbandsgemeinde)
Kirchberg is a Verbandsgemeinde in the Rhein-Hunsrück district, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Its seat is in Kirchberg.The Verbandsgemeinde Kirchberg consists of the following Ortsgemeinden :...
, whose seat is in the like-named town
Kirchberg, Rhein-Hunsrück
-History:Archaeological finds make it clear that by 400 BC, the Treveri, a people of mixed Celtic and Germanic stock, from whom the Latin name for the city of Trier, Augusta Treverorum, is also derived, had settled here...
.
Location
The municipality lies on a high plateau in the northern HunsrückHunsrück
The Hunsrück is a low mountain range in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is bounded by the river valleys of the Moselle , the Nahe , and the Rhine . The Hunsrück is continued by the Taunus mountains on the eastern side of the Rhine. In the north behind the Moselle it is continued by the Eifel...
between the Hunsrückhöhenstraße (“Hunsrück Heights Road”, a scenic road across the Hunsrück built originally as a military road on Hermann Göring
Hermann Göring
Hermann Wilhelm Göring, was a German politician, military leader, and a leading member of the Nazi Party. He was a veteran of World War I as an ace fighter pilot, and a recipient of the coveted Pour le Mérite, also known as "The Blue Max"...
’s orders) and the Moselle. Raversbeuren borders directly on Frankfurt-Hahn Airport
Frankfurt-Hahn Airport
-Cargo airlines:-Other facilities:AirIT Services AG, a subsidiary of Fraport, has its head office in Building 663 at Hahn Airport.-References:*Active Air Force Bases Within the United States of America on 17 September 1982 USAF Reference Series, Office of Air Force History, United States Air Force,...
, and is a residential community with an agricultural
Agriculture
Agriculture is the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi and other life forms for food, fiber, and other products used to sustain life. Agriculture was the key implement in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that nurtured the...
character. The municipal area measures 5.14 km², of which 1.93 km² is wooded.
History
The oldest evidence of human presence is a stone axe that was found within Raversbeuren’s municipal limits. Near the village, not far from the “Briedeler Heck” estate buildings, two further such axes were unearthed. A few hundred metres from that find, a great many flintFlint
Flint is a hard, sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as a variety of chert. It occurs chiefly as nodules and masses in sedimentary rocks, such as chalks and limestones. Inside the nodule, flint is usually dark grey, black, green, white, or brown in colour, and...
chips were also found.
Notable are the great many graves from late Hallstatt times
Hallstatt culture
The Hallstatt culture was the predominant Central European culture from the 8th to 6th centuries BC , developing out of the Urnfield culture of the 12th century BC and followed in much of Central Europe by the La Tène culture.By the 6th century BC, the Hallstatt culture extended for some...
(roughly 600 to 500 BC). Almost every hilltop harbours such graves. It has been established that some burial grounds were used over a number of centuries. Tribes and customs changed over time.
It is quite clear that there was a building from Roman
Ancient Rome
Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....
times within municipal limits. Coins from Maximian
Maximian
Maximian was Roman Emperor from 286 to 305. He was Caesar from 285 to 286, then Augustus from 286 to 305. He shared the latter title with his co-emperor and superior, Diocletian, whose political brain complemented Maximian's military brawn. Maximian established his residence at Trier but spent...
’s time, just after Diocletian
Diocletian
Diocletian |latinized]] upon his accession to Diocletian . c. 22 December 244 – 3 December 311), was a Roman Emperor from 284 to 305....
’s time in power (AD 204 to 305), have been found. Three further settlements existed not far from the municipal limit, among which was the great manor on what is now the estate lands. Smaller finds come to light almost every time that a major excavation is undertaken.
In 908, Raversbeuren had its first documentary mention when Carolingian King Louis the Child
Louis the Child
Louis the Child , sometimes called Louis IV or Louis III, was the last Carolingian ruler of East Francia....
donated the royal estate that he held at Raversbeuren to the Archbishopric of Trier, then headed by Archbishop Ratbod.
In the Frankish
Franks
The Franks were a confederation of Germanic tribes first attested in the third century AD as living north and east of the Lower Rhine River. From the third to fifth centuries some Franks raided Roman territory while other Franks joined the Roman troops in Gaul. Only the Salian Franks formed a...
Empire’s early days, Raversbeuren belonged to the Nahegau
Nahegau
The Nahegau was in the Middle Ages a county, which covered the environs of the Nahe and large parts of present-day Rhenish Hesse, after a successful expansion of the narrow territory, which did not reach the Rhine, to the disadvantage of the Wormsgau...
. The Gau counts were the Emichones
Emichones
The Emichones family is a precursor to several noble families in the southwestern German region. Its members were -- perhaps as undercounts of the Salian dynasty -- gau counts in the Nahegau. The name is due to the prevailing first name "Emich."- History :The Nahegau was next to the Wormsgau and...
. Later, sometime before 1125, it passed, likely with Enkirch
Enkirch
Enkirch is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Bernkastel-Wittlich district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.- Location :...
, as it was a branch of that parish, into the hereditary ownership of the Count of Sponheim
County of Sponheim
The County of Sponheim was an independent territory in the Holy Roman Empire which lasted from the 11th century until the early 19th century...
. Administration of the royal estate was transferred to the Ravengiersburg Monastery.
It was in the 13th century that the Raversbeuren churchtower was built for what was then only a chapel
Chapel
A chapel is a building used by Christians as a place of fellowship and worship. It may be part of a larger structure or complex, such as a church, college, hospital, palace, prison or funeral home, located on board a military or commercial ship, or it may be an entirely free-standing building,...
. From about the same time comes the “small” bell bearing the Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
inscription in uppercase Gothic letters: MAGISTER CONRADUS DE WORMATIA FECIT * MARIA VOCOR* (“Master Conrad from Worms
Worms, Germany
Worms is a city in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, on the Rhine River. At the end of 2004, it had 85,829 inhabitants.Established by the Celts, who called it Borbetomagus, Worms today remains embattled with the cities Trier and Cologne over the title of "Oldest City in Germany." Worms is the only...
made me; I am called Maria”). According to the Glockenatlas (“Bell Atlas”), “Maria” is said to be Germany’s oldest bell that actually bears the bellfounder’s name.
In 1374, reports of Flagellant
Flagellant
Flagellants are practitioners of an extreme form of mortification of their own flesh by whipping it with various instruments.- History :Flagellantism was a 13th and 14th centuries movement, consisting of radicals in the Catholic Church. It began as a militant pilgrimage and was later condemned by...
s in Raversbeuren crop up. in 1422, the local lordships furnished horsemen for the struggle
Hussite Wars
The Hussite Wars, also called the Bohemian Wars involved the military actions against and amongst the followers of Jan Hus in Bohemia in the period 1419 to circa 1434. The Hussite Wars were notable for the extensive use of early hand-held gunpowder weapons such as hand cannons...
against the Hussite
Hussite
The Hussites were a Christian movement following the teachings of Czech reformer Jan Hus , who became one of the forerunners of the Protestant Reformation...
s.
In 1511, the Ravengiersburg Monastery, whose prior at this time was Kaspar von Grünberg, had its considerable monastic holding at Raversbeuren, measuring 120 Morgen
Morgen
A morgen was a unit of measurement of land in Germany, the Netherlands, Poland and the Dutch colonies, including South Africa and Taiwan. The size of a morgen varies from 1/2 to 2½ acres, which equals approximately 0.2 to 1 ha...
, leased. The hereditary leaseholder exercised lower jurisdiction (that is, not blood court
Blood court
Blood Court or high justice in the Holy Roman Empire referred to the right of a Vogt to hold a criminal court inflicting bodily punishment, including the death penalty.Not every Vogt held the blood court...
) in the village. The leaseholder’s house was thus known as Anwalt’s (Anwalt being German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
for “lawyer”); even today, a local rural cadastral area still bears the name “Anwaltsland”. The later hereditary leaseholding family remained the only Catholics in Raversbeuren through the introduction of the Reformation
Protestant Reformation
The Protestant Reformation was a 16th-century split within Western Christianity initiated by Martin Luther, John Calvin and other early Protestants. The efforts of the self-described "reformers", who objected to the doctrines, rituals and ecclesiastical structure of the Roman Catholic Church, led...
in 1545 and 1557, even centuries later.
In 1515, the village counted nine dwellers with townsman’s rights. Any feudal underlings that they may have had are not mentioned.
For a few decades there were boundary disputes and protracted court proceedings (1549 to 1553) with the municipality of Briedel
Briedel
Briedel is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Cochem-Zell district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde of Zell, whose seat is in the municipality of Zell an der Mosel...
, which apparently went all the way to the Reichskammergericht
Reichskammergericht
The Reichskammergericht or Imperial Chamber Court was one of two highest judicial institutions in the Holy Roman Empire, the other one being the Aulic Council in Vienna. It was founded in 1495 by the Imperial Diet in Worms...
before being resolved. There also followed differences in opinion as to the alignment of boundaries with other neighbouring municipalities.
The Plague beset Raversbeuren more than once. It came to the area in 1567, and again in 1621. This second outbreak came during the Thirty Years' War
Thirty Years' War
The Thirty Years' War was fought primarily in what is now Germany, and at various points involved most countries in Europe. It was one of the most destructive conflicts in European history....
, which brought its own hardship and misery. Early in the war, in 1619, the Spaniards
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
plundered Raversbeuren. On 6 November 1620, they came ransacking once more. They molested the village a third time, on 16 June 1622. On 17 December 1631, three companies of Swedish
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
troops defeated ten companies of Spaniards in battle, but the Swedes treated Raversbeuren no better, and indeed so badly “that not one head of livestock was left”. Even Croats
Croatia
Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...
were mentioned along with the Swedes. On 21 June 1633, the Swedes showed up in the village once again, robbing it of, among other things, eight horses. In September 1634, 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...
sacked Raversbeuren. Two months later, the Swedes came yet again.
A record from 14 January 1630 shows that Abbot Mathias of Himmerod Abbey
Himmerod Abbey
Himmerod Abbey is a Cistercian monastery in the community of Großlittgen in the Verbandsgemeinde of Manderscheid in the district of Bernkastel-Wittlich, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, located in the Eifel, in the valley of the Salm.-First foundation:Himmerod Abbey was founded in 1134 by Saint...
in 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....
had meadows in Rabersbeuren leased for a term of 24 years for 6 Moselgulden a year. According to old taxation registers, the Counts Kratz of Scharffenstein also had minor holdings – meadows – in Raversbeuren.
In a later document, the village is named as Ravenssteyer; it was then in the Schultheiß
Schultheiß
In medieval Germany, the Schultheiß was the head of a municipality , a Vogt or an executive official of the ruler.As official it was...
erei of Unzenberg. After the Counts of Sponheim had died out in 1437, and after their heritable holdings had been shared out, the eastern stretch of Raversbeuren’s municipal area became a three-state common point, shared by Baden
Baden
Baden is a historical state on the east bank of the Rhine in the southwest of Germany, now the western part of the Baden-Württemberg of Germany....
, the Electorate of Trier and Electoral Palatinate.
A village record from 11 July 1727 gives a thorough report about how the Rhinegraves’ and Waldgraves’ subjects were transferred to the Elector Palatine (Heidelberg
Heidelberg
-Early history:Between 600,000 and 200,000 years ago, "Heidelberg Man" died at nearby Mauer. His jaw bone was discovered in 1907; with scientific dating, his remains were determined to be the earliest evidence of human life in Europe. In the 5th century BC, a Celtic fortress of refuge and place of...
). Of 29 townsmen, 26 were named all together, 9 of them Palatine subjects, 13 of them Obersteinisch (that is, belonging to the Rhinegraves and Waldgraves at Castle Dhaun) and 6 Sponheimisch (likely the Veldenz-Zweibrücken line). In 1767, there were 24 townsmen.
As to what year Raversbeuren’s church was built, nothing is known. In 1707, the whole church but for the tower was torn down, and a new building arose. It contains a gallery with balustrade-field paintings from the 18th century and a Stumm organ
Organ (music)
The organ , is a keyboard instrument of one or more divisions, each played with its own keyboard operated either with the hands or with the feet. The organ is a relatively old musical instrument in the Western musical tradition, dating from the time of Ctesibius of Alexandria who is credited with...
.
The first clergyman in Raversbeuren mentioned after the Reformation was Johann Rühling. He worked as a minister in both Raversbeuren and Lötzbeuren
Lötzbeuren
Lötzbeuren is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Bernkastel-Wittlich district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.- Location :...
. From 1664 to 1715, this office was held by Barthel Wagner. The local minister was put in charge of all Lutheran
Lutheranism
Lutheranism is a major branch of Western Christianity that identifies with the theology of Martin Luther, a German reformer. Luther's efforts to reform the theology and practice of the church launched the Protestant Reformation...
communities within the Oberamt of Simmern. Mentioned in 1723 as the local teacher was Johann Heinrich Barthelmes.
Under Napoleon
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...
, after an end had been put to the tangle of small lordships in the wake of 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...
, all monastic lands were auctioned off and became farmland. Under the French flag, quite a few men from Raversbeuren took part in Napoleon’s campaign against Russia
French invasion of Russia
The French invasion of Russia of 1812 was a turning point in the Napoleonic Wars. It reduced the French and allied invasion forces to a tiny fraction of their initial strength and triggered a major shift in European politics as it dramatically weakened French hegemony in Europe...
, while on the way back, many also fought under 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 flag against the French in the War of the Sixth Coalition
War of the Sixth Coalition
In the War of the Sixth Coalition , a coalition of Austria, Prussia, Russia, the United Kingdom, Portugal, Sweden, Spain and a number of German States finally defeated France and drove Napoleon Bonaparte into exile on Elba. After Napoleon's disastrous invasion of Russia, the continental powers...
.
During the war years from 1806 to 1815, there was great hardship. Municipalities found themselves burdened with war debts. Charcoal
Charcoal
Charcoal is the dark grey residue consisting of carbon, and any remaining ash, obtained by removing water and other volatile constituents from animal and vegetation substances. Charcoal is usually produced by slow pyrolysis, the heating of wood or other substances in the absence of oxygen...
from felled forests brought very little money in. The municipality auctioned off great swathes of land. The main burden was borne, as it so often is, by individual citizens. As was so everywhere in Germany, many people from Raversbeuren emigrated to the New World
New World
The New World is one of the names used for the Western Hemisphere, specifically America and sometimes Oceania . The term originated in the late 15th century, when America had been recently discovered by European explorers, expanding the geographical horizon of the people of the European middle...
. The main destination was Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
, and more particularly Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro , commonly referred to simply as Rio, is the capital city of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city of Brazil, and the third largest metropolitan area and agglomeration in South America, boasting approximately 6.3 million people within the city proper, making it the 6th...
, Rio Grande do Sul
Rio Grande do Sul
Rio Grande do Sul is the southernmost state in Brazil, and the state with the fifth highest Human Development Index in the country. In this state is located the southernmost city in the country, Chuí, on the border with Uruguay. In the region of Bento Gonçalves and Caxias do Sul, the largest wine...
and Porto Alegre
Porto Alegre
Porto Alegre is the tenth most populous municipality in Brazil, with 1,409,939 inhabitants, and the centre of Brazil's fourth largest metropolitan area . It is also the capital city of the southernmost Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul. The city is the southernmost capital city of a Brazilian...
. Despite the general state of neediness, it was in this time that the old watermain, a channel first mentioned about 1670, was renovated with masonry pipes. In 1895, the watermain was renovated yet again, this time with cast-iron
Cast iron
Cast iron is derived from pig iron, and while it usually refers to gray iron, it also identifies a large group of ferrous alloys which solidify with a eutectic. The color of a fractured surface can be used to identify an alloy. White cast iron is named after its white surface when fractured, due...
pipes; these are still in use today.
Beginning in 1794, Raversbeuren lay under 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...
rule. In 1815 it was assigned to the Kingdom of 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...
at the Congress of Vienna
Congress of Vienna
The Congress of Vienna was a conference of ambassadors of European states chaired by Klemens Wenzel von Metternich, and held in Vienna from September, 1814 to June, 1815. The objective of the Congress was to settle the many issues arising from the French Revolutionary Wars, the Napoleonic Wars,...
.
In 1857 and 1858, a new municipal bakehouse was built with a hall upstairs. The next year a great fire burnt many barns and houses to ashes. A later fire in 1893 was confined to two barns, although one of these housed the big threshing machine, which was also destroyed. It had been bought in 1871, after the formation of a village corporation, along with a traction engine
Traction engine
A traction engine is a self-propelled steam engine used to move heavy loads on roads, plough ground or to provide power at a chosen location. The name derives from the Latin tractus, meaning 'drawn', since the prime function of any traction engine is to draw a load behind it...
from Heinrich Lanz AG
Aktiengesellschaft
Aktiengesellschaft is a German term that refers to a corporation that is limited by shares, i.e. owned by shareholders, and may be traded on a stock market. The term is used in Germany, Austria and Switzerland...
of Mannheim
Mannheim
Mannheim is a city in southwestern Germany. With about 315,000 inhabitants, Mannheim is the second-largest city in the Bundesland of Baden-Württemberg, following the capital city of Stuttgart....
. It was the third machine delivered by this well known company. Even today, there is still a communally run threshing set in Raversbeuren. Also about 1871, a village livestock insurance
Insurance
In law and economics, insurance is a form of risk management primarily used to hedge against the risk of a contingent, uncertain loss. Insurance is defined as the equitable transfer of the risk of a loss, from one entity to another, in exchange for payment. An insurer is a company selling the...
plan was established.
In the 1880s, 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 already being discussed in Raversbeuren, sometimes heatedly. Nevertheless, actual preparations for rationalizing the confusion of property lines in the municipality did not begin until 1912. Work carried on through the First World War, ending only in 1924.
Seven men from Raversbeuren fell in the First World War. Eighteen made the ultimate sacrifice in the Second World War. Before the Americans
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
marched in on 17 March 1945, the village had suffered considerable damage in a three-day (14–16 March 1945) artillery
Artillery
Originally applied to any group of infantry primarily armed with projectile weapons, artillery has over time become limited in meaning to refer only to those engines of war that operate by projection of munitions far beyond the range of effect of personal weapons...
barrage. One barn had burnt right down. Worse yet, 16 people – both military and civilian – had been killed; there were also quite a few wounded.
In 1937 a new shed was built for the communal threshing machine. Even during the war, infrastructure improvements continued: the waterworks were expanded by a newly bored spring
Spring (hydrosphere)
A spring—also known as a rising or resurgence—is a component of the hydrosphere. Specifically, it is any natural situation where water flows to the surface of the earth from underground...
. In 1947 and 1948, a new communal barn with livestock stable was built, and the following year, and electrically driven communal mill at the upper entrance to Raversbeuren replaced the four watermill
Watermill
A watermill is a structure that uses a water wheel or turbine to drive a mechanical process such as flour, lumber or textile production, or metal shaping .- History :...
s.
Although the municipality’s economic circumstances were rather circumscribed by the French occupation’s seizure of almost all the spruce
Spruce
A spruce is a tree of the genus Picea , a genus of about 35 species of coniferous evergreen trees in the Family Pinaceae, found in the northern temperate and boreal regions of the earth. Spruces are large trees, from tall when mature, and can be distinguished by their whorled branches and conical...
trees that were fit for felling, enough trees could be obtained from the last few suitable ones that the French had left, and through the purchase from the French of more from the stock that they had harvested to build a new schoolhouse in 1951. Promised assistance from the then newly founded state
States of Germany
Germany is made up of sixteen which are partly sovereign constituent states of the Federal Republic of Germany. Land literally translates as "country", and constitutionally speaking, they are constituent countries...
of 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 ....
, to which Raversbeuren had belonged since 1946, never materialized.
The community centre was expanded and rebuilt in 1956 to accommodate the village’s growing needs.
Municipal council
The council is made up of 6 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 Blau, 2:1 gestellt, eine goldene Glocke, zwei goldene Ähren, ein silbernes Brunnenhaus mit Schwengelbrunnen.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: Azure in chief a bell on a yoke and two ears of rye conjoined on a stem leafed of two Or, and in base a wellhouse with a well boom with pail argent.
The bell is Maria, mentioned above, held to be Germany’s oldest bell that has its maker’s name on it. The ears of rye symbolize the municipality’s former agricultural
Agriculture
Agriculture is the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi and other life forms for food, fiber, and other products used to sustain life. Agriculture was the key implement in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that nurtured the...
character. The well, believed to have come into being in the late 18th century and still preserved now, was once an important source of water for the villagers.
Culture and sightseeing
Buildings
The following are listed buildings or sites in Rhineland-PalatinateRhineland-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 ....
’s Directory of Cultural Monuments:
- Backesweg 5 – EvangelicalEvangelical Church in GermanyThe Evangelical Church in Germany is a federation of 22 Lutheran, Unified and Reformed Protestant regional church bodies in Germany. The EKD is not a church in a theological understanding because of the denominational differences. However, the member churches share full pulpit and altar...
church; BaroqueBaroque architectureBaroque architecture is a term used to describe the building style of the Baroque era, begun in late sixteenth century Italy, that took the Roman vocabulary of Renaissance architecture and used it in a new rhetorical and theatrical fashion, often to express the triumph of the Catholic Church and...
aisleless churchAisleless churchAn Aisleless church is a single-nave church building that consists of a single hall-like room. While similar to the hall church, the aisleless church lacks aisles or passageways either side of the nave separated from the nave by colonnades or arcades, a row of pillars or columns...
, 1707, 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....
portal, west tower, late 13th century - Dorfstraße – well; wellhouse, slateSlateSlate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. The result is a foliated rock in which the foliation may not correspond to the original sedimentary layering...
quarrystone - Dorfstraße 37 – L-shaped estate; timber-frameTimber framingTimber framing , or half-timbering, also called in North America "post-and-beam" construction, is the method of creating structures using heavy squared off and carefully fitted and joined timbers with joints secured by large wooden pegs . It is commonplace in large barns...
house, partly solid, earlier half of the 19th century, barn
Roman villa
Northwest of Raversbeuren, within BriedelBriedel
Briedel is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Cochem-Zell district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde of Zell, whose seat is in the municipality of Zell an der Mosel...
’s municipal limits, near Margaretenhof, a Roman villa rustica
Villa rustica
Villa rustica was the term used by the ancient Romans to denote a villa set in the open countryside, often as the hub of a large agricultural estate . The adjective rusticum was used to distinguish it from an urban or resort villa...
was discovered and in 1875 investigated and partly unearthed by the Rheinisches Landesmuseum Bonn
Rheinisches Landesmuseum Bonn
The Rheinisches Landesmuseum Bonn, or LVR-LandesMuseum Bonn, is a museum in Bonn, Germany, run by the Rhineland Landscape Association. It is one of the oldest museums in the country. In 2003 it completed an extensive renovation...
. The estate complex, not counting outlying buildings, covered an area of 41 × 26 m. More than 30 rooms were laid bare. The occupants had running water, brought in through lead
Lead
Lead is a main-group element in the carbon group with the symbol Pb and atomic number 82. Lead is a soft, malleable poor metal. It is also counted as one of the heavy metals. Metallic lead has a bluish-white color after being freshly cut, but it soon tarnishes to a dull grayish color when exposed...
en pipes. The estate existed into late Roman times.
Regular events
The Lott-Festival is held in Raversbeuren’s municipal area. It has existed since 1977 and, given its broad range of musical genres, has been called the “Woodstock on the Hunsrück”. The name “Lott” comes from the name of the rural cadastral area in EnkirchEnkirch
Enkirch is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Bernkastel-Wittlich district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.- Location :...
, a municipality on the Moselle, where the festival was held until 1985. It moved to its current location after complaints from tenant hunters (Jagdpächter).