Creutzwald (german: Kreuzwald) is a commune in the

Moselle The Moselle ( , ; german: Mosel ; lb, Musel ) is a river that rises in the Vosges mountains and flows through north-eastern France and Luxembourg to western Germany. It is a bank (geography), left bank tributary of the Rhine, which it jo ...

département in Grand Est in north-eastern France. With Germany, it manages the

Warndt The Warndt is an extensive forest area of approximately including parts of the German Saarland and the French region Grand Est west of Saarbrücken. The geology of the Warndt is composed of Buntsandstein permeated by veins of iron ore and deposi ...

forest.

History

The town was formed in 1810, by the merging of the three villages of ''La Croix'', ''La Houve'', and ''Wilhelmsbronn''. It continued to be known as Creutzwald-la-Croix until 1961, when the name was simplified. Until that point, it had been redundant, as the German word ''Kreuz'', and French ''Croix'' both mean "cross". Like the other communes of the present-day Moselle department, Creutzwald was annexed to the

German Empire The German Empire (),Herbert Tuttle wrote in September 1881 that the term "Reich" does not literally connote an empire as has been commonly assumed by English-speaking people. The term literally denotes an empire – particularly a hereditary ...

from 1871 to 1918. During the Second World War, the commune was annexed by the Third Reich. It was not liberated until December 1944. Creutzwald was the last town in France to have a working coal mine, in

La Houve LA most frequently refers to Los Angeles, the second largest city in the United States. La, LA, or L.A. may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * La (musical note), or A, the sixth note * "L.A.", a song by Elliott Smith on ''Figure ...

, which closed on 23 April 2004.

Population

Administration

Together with the municipalities of Bisten-en-Lorraine,

Guerting Guerting (; ; Lorraine Franconian: ''Gerténgen'') is a commune in the Moselle department in Grand Est in north-eastern France. See also * Communes of the Moselle department The following is a list of the 725 Communes of France, communes of the ...

, Ham-sous-Varsberg and Varsberg, it forms the Communauté de communes of Warndt.CC du Warndt
Banatic database Since 2015, it is part of the

canton of Boulay-Moselle The canton of Boulay-Moselle is an administrative division of the Moselle department, northeastern France. Its borders were modified at the French canton reorganisation which came into effect in March 2015. Its seat is in Boulay-Moselle. It consist ...

Industrial and handcraft activities

Glass

The first industrial development of the commune was linked to glass, thanks to the abundance of wood in the forests and the presence of silica sand in the soil. The first glass factories were set up between 1602 and 1603 by the Condé family, gentlemen glassmakers from Champagne. Several glass factories operated simultaneously in Creutzwald until the middle of the 17th century, when they gradually declined. The last one, La Houve, was established in 1705 to revive the activity, and was bought by the glass factory of Meisenthal in 1843.

Steel and iron

The iron and steel industry started in the La Houve forest. It was initiated by the Quien family, who installed two blast furnaces initially fuelled by charcoal. The hydraulic power produced by the water of the Bisten enabled the blowers to be put into action to increase the temperature in the furnaces. The iron industry flourished until the revolution, which stopped this activity. In 1814, François Payssé revived the iron and steel production. Then the factory passed into the hands of the Schlincker family. The blast furnaces were shut down and only the cast iron casting remained. The Quinchez family took over the running of the company. Finally, in 1929, the factory was directed by the Schmitt brothers. It was closed after the Second World War.

References

External links

Creutzwald Webzine (News media)
{{Authority control Communes of Moselle (department) Duchy of Lorraine