Dietkirchen
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Dietkirchen an der Lahn is a
borough A borough is an administrative division in various English language, English-speaking countries. In principle, the term ''borough'' designates a self-governing walled town, although in practice, official use of the term varies widely. History ...
(''
Ortsbezirk A (; also called ''Ortsbezirk'' in Hesse and Rhineland-Palatinate) is an administrative division in Germany, which is part of a larger city. It is translated as "borough". In Germany, usually only exist in a metropolis with more than 150,000 in ...
'') of
Limburg an der Lahn Limburg an der Lahn (, ; officially abbreviated ''Limburg a. d. Lahn'') is the district seat of Limburg-Weilburg in Hesse, Germany. Geography Location Limburg lies in western Hesse between the Taunus and the Westerwald on the river Lahn. The t ...
, seat of the district of
Limburg-Weilburg Limburg-Weilburg is a Kreis (district) in the west of Hesse, Germany. Neighboring districts are Lahn-Dill, Hochtaunuskreis, Rheingau-Taunus, Rhein-Lahn, Westerwaldkreis. History *1867 the ''Oberlahnkreis'', capital Weilburg was created *1886 t ...
in the state of
Hesse Hesse or Hessen ( ), officially the State of Hesse (), is a States of Germany, state in Germany. Its capital city is Wiesbaden, and the largest urban area is Frankfurt, which is also the country's principal financial centre. Two other major hist ...
,
Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...
. The formerly independent village was incorporated into Limburg in 1971. The town is dominated by the basilica St. Lubentius, which was the most important early-
medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with the fall of the West ...
church building in the region.


Geography

Dietkirchen is situated directly on the west (left) bank of the
Lahn The Lahn () is a , right (or eastern) tributary of the Rhine in Germany. Its course passes through the States of Germany, federal states of North Rhine-Westphalia (23.0 km), Hesse (165.6 km), and Rhineland-Palatinate (57.0 km). ...
River. Its prominent feature is the towering
limestone Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...
bluff on which St. Lubentius is built. The central town of Limburg is located in a widening of the Lahn valley. Dietkirchen is situated at the eastern end of this widening, with the valley becoming narrow again near
Runkel Runkel () is a town on the river Lahn in Limburg-Weilburg district in Hesse, Germany. Geography Location Runkel lies in the Lahn Valley on both sides of the river between the Westerwald and the Taunus, some eight kilometres east of Limbur ...
. The old village is characterized by a large height differential, with housing plots situated on terraces formed by numerous
retaining walls Retaining walls are relatively rigid walls used for supporting soil laterally so that it can be retained at different levels on the two sides. Retaining walls are structures designed to restrain soil to a slope that it would not naturally keep to ...
. The village itself is situated at an elevation of 120 to 170 meters. In the northern part of the borough, the landscape rises up to 180 meters, while in the southern part, on the banks of the Lahn below the church's bluff, it drops to 115 meters. With a surface area of , Dietkirchen is the smallest borough of Limburg. Its surroundings consist almost exclusively of agricultural land, with the exception of the vegetation on the banks of the Lahn. The borough is bordered to the north by the Runkel borough of Dehrn, in the east and south by Eschhofen, in the west by the central city of Limburg, and in the northwest by Offheim.


History


Early history

In the area of the church St. Lubentius, archaeologists have discovered traces of a cult site from the
Copper Age The Chalcolithic ( ) (also called the Copper Age and Eneolithic) was an archaeological period characterized by the increasing use of smelted copper. It followed the Neolithic and preceded the Bronze Age. It occurred at different periods in dif ...
(2000 to 4000 BC), as well as the remains of a settlement assigned to the
Urnfield culture The Urnfield culture () was a late Bronze Age Europe, Bronze Age culture of Central Europe, often divided into several local cultures within a broader Urnfield tradition. The name comes from the custom of cremation, cremating the dead and placin ...
(1300 to 800 BC). Excavations in the Basilica suggest that before the Church was constructed the site on the limestone bluff had been a pagan cult and gathering place. The Reckenforst, a judicial meeting place which exercised high jurisdiction over the wider environs in at least in the Early Middle Ages, was nearby. It was mentioned as early as 1217. Dietkirchen is first mentioned in documents in 841 as "in ecclesia dietkircha". The village, however, is older. A low noble family, "the Dietkirchener Lords," resided there. The meaning of the toponym is unclear. The second part, "''kirchen''" (German for church), refers, according to the unanimous opinion, to the St. Lubentius church. The problem is in the interpretation of the syllable "''diet''." Some historians speculate that it comes from
Old High German Old High German (OHG; ) is the earliest stage of the German language, conventionally identified as the period from around 500/750 to 1050. Rather than representing a single supra-regional form of German, Old High German encompasses the numerous ...
, and means "the people." The village's name then meant "people's church" and refers to the prominent position of the Archdeaconate as a central church. Others advocate a pre- Germanic meaning of "''diet''" referring to the important ford on the Lahn below the church. In the history of the village, the
Christianization Christianization (or Christianisation) is a term for the specific type of change that occurs when someone or something has been or is being converted to Christianity. Christianization has, for the most part, spread through missions by individu ...
of the Lahn region and the St. Lubentius basilica play a special role. The legend that Lubentius himself ministered there is demonstrably wrong. The beginnings of Christianity in the Lahn region date approximately to between the 6th and the end of the 7th centuries. In this period was probably also the founding of the village.


St. Lubentius

The Romanesque
basilica In Ancient Roman architecture, a basilica (Greek Basiliké) was a large public building with multiple functions that was typically built alongside the town's forum. The basilica was in the Latin West equivalent to a stoa in the Greek Eas ...
of St. Lubentius is situated in the midst of a park-like cemetery. Its architecture is typical of the time, characterized by heavy members and generally cubic bulkiness, from which only the interior manages in places to break away. The aspirations of the architecture and the quality of the interior decoration remind one today of the important role St. Lubentius played in church politics. The first mention of the
collegiate church In Christianity, a collegiate church is a church where the daily office of worship is maintained by a college of canons, a non-monastic or "secular" community of clergy, organised as a self-governing corporate body, headed by a dignitary bearing ...
of St. Lubentius dates to 841. It was built between 830 and 838. The
parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish pries ...
counted around 425 souls at the time. According to archaeological finds, it replaced an earlier stone
parish church A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the Church (building), church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. In many parts of the world, especially in rural areas, the parish church may play a significant role in com ...
built in about 720, which itself had replaced a wooden predecessor probably built as early as 580. It became an
archdeacon An archdeacon is a senior clergy position in the Church of the East, Chaldean Catholic Church, Syriac Orthodox Church, Anglican Communion, St Thomas Christians, Eastern Orthodox Church, Eastern Orthodox churches and some other Christian denomina ...
ate of the
Archdiocese of Trier The Diocese of Trier (), in English historically also known as ''Treves'' () from French ''Trèves'', is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Catholic church in Germany.Rhine The Rhine ( ) is one of the List of rivers of Europe, major rivers in Europe. The river begins in the Swiss canton of Graubünden in the southeastern Swiss Alps. It forms part of the Swiss-Liechtenstein border, then part of the Austria–Swit ...
was managed from Dietkirchen. Six
deaneries A deanery (or decanate) is an ecclesiastical entity in the Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Anglican Communion, the Evangelical Church in Germany, and the Church of Norway. A deanery is either the jurisdiction or residence of a ...
were subordinate to it. Construction of the basilica may have already begun by 1021. The present structure was consecrated on August 5, 1225. Supposedly, the construction lasted only about ten years. In addition to St. Lubentius, St. Juliana was also selected as a patron of the church. In the Romanesque church lie the remains of St. Lubentius, around which many legends have formed. Probably his remains were transported from Kobern on the Mosel to Dietkirchen before 841. By no later than 1326, the deanery of Dietkirchen also possessed a separate land
chapter Chapter or Chapters may refer to: Books * Chapter (books), a main division of a piece of writing or document * Chapter book, a story book intended for intermediate readers, generally age 7–10 * Chapters (bookstore), Canadian big box bookstore ...
(German ''Landkapitel''), a spiritual community analogous to a collegiate chapter. Its memorial book recorded its last entry in 1709, after the rest of the land chapters in the Archdeaconate had been dissolved in the
Protestant Reformation The Reformation, also known as the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation, was a time of major theological movement in Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the papacy and ...
. Several members of the Frei family of Dehrn, a regionally important house of lower nobility, were buried at the church.


Lahn crossings

The Lahn Ferry at Dietkirchen was mentioned already between 1048 and 1098. The operation of this ferry was given as a feudal right. The ferry service ended in 1959. As a replacement, a 145 meter long and 3.30 meter wide wooden bicycle and pedestrian bridge was built beneath the rock in 1989. Regional bike paths R7 and R8 cross the Lahn via this bridge. Near the mouth of the Emsbach, a small stream that enters the Lahn between Dietkirchen and Eschhofen, there is a ford across the Lahn that was used intensively in the late Frankish period. The imperial postal service later used this crossing on its Frankfurt-Cologne route. The area is still known as the ''Postmauer'' (post wall) today.


Dietkirchen Market

When the Dietkirchen
Market Market is a term used to describe concepts such as: *Market (economics), system in which parties engage in transactions according to supply and demand *Market economy *Marketplace, a physical marketplace or public market *Marketing, the act of sat ...
began is not known, but it probably dates to the
High Middle Ages The High Middle Ages, or High Medieval Period, was the periodization, period of European history between and ; it was preceded by the Early Middle Ages and followed by the Late Middle Ages, which ended according to historiographical convention ...
. Evidence of a
fair A fair (archaic: faire or fayre) is a gathering of people for a variety of entertainment or commercial activities. Fairs are typically temporary with scheduled times lasting from an afternoon to several weeks. Fairs showcase a wide range of go ...
(German ''Jahrmarkt'') on the Feast of St. Lubentius dates to the late 13th century, but it is clearly mentioned only in 1538. The market was an attraction for visitors from the surrounding area. The historical market was renewed in 1991 at the initiative of then-mayor Kurt van der Burg and with the co-operation of all the clubs in the town. It now takes place every three years.


Prisoner of war camp and military cemetery

At the end of 1914, during
World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
, a
prisoner of war A prisoner of war (POW) is a person held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. Belligerents hold prisoners of war for a ...
camp was established on both sides of the road from Limburg to Dietkirchen. Barracks were built to hold up to 12,000 inmates. First, these were mainly English, Irish, and French soldiers, while toward the end of the war there were especially Russians and Poles. Italians were also imprisoned there. The camp reached its occupancy limit in May 1915. During the day, the prisoners worked in local businesses and surrounding farms. On December 23, 1914, the first prisoner to die in the camp,
Irishman The Irish ( or ''Na hÉireannaigh'') are an ethnic group and nation native to the island of Ireland, who share a common ancestry, history and culture. There have been humans in Ireland for about 33,000 years, and it has been continually inhab ...
Frederick Reilly (born August 24, 1864, died December 20, 1914), was buried in the nearby graveyard with full military honors. In August 1916, the graveyard, which, together with the medical aid station, was located south of the road between Limburg and Dietkirchen, was expanded into a military cemetery. On the feast of
Pentecost Pentecost (also called Whit Sunday, Whitsunday or Whitsun) is a Christianity, Christian holiday which takes place on the 49th day (50th day when inclusive counting is used) after Easter Day, Easter. It commemorates the descent of the Holy Spiri ...
, May 25, 1917, a three-meter-high
Celtic cross upright 0.75 , A Celtic cross symbol The Celtic cross is a form of ringed cross, a Christian cross featuring a nimbus or ring, that emerged in the British Isles and Western Europe in the Early Middle Ages. It became widespread through its u ...
was erected to commemorate the Irish who had died in the camp. On August 3, a sculpture by French sculptor Eduard Colomo, himself a prisoner in Dietkirchen, was completed. Until 1920, the camp served as a transit station for former German soldiers who had been released from Allied captivity. In 1923, all of the Russian dead and a Frenchman were exhumed and reinterred either in their homeland or at larger, central burial sites. From the First World War, a total of about 330 Russians, 130 French, 60 Italians, 47 British, 45 Irish, seven Serbs, two Belgians and a Romanian are still buried at the cemetery. The camp cemetery was reused during
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
for
Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
prisoners of war who had died in the camp “Stammlager XII" in Diez. By the end of World War II, the number of Russian and Soviet soldiers buried there increased to an estimated 945. For that reason, the cemetery is locally known as the "Russian cemetery." In 1954, the remains of three Russian prisoners of war, who were shot by men of the SS in the last days of the war in Oberweyer and had been buried there under the direction of the local mayor, were reburied in Dietkirchen. In 1959, at the site of the no-longer-maintained French monument, the city of Limburg erected a memorial stone for the Russian dead. Between 1998 and 2005, the entire cemetery was fundamentally renovated.


Incorporation into Limburg

In 1971, within the framework of territorial reform in Hesse, Dietkirchen lost its independence and became the first of the surrounding villages to be incorporated into the City of Limburg. Since 2001, Dietkirchen has been part of the Hessian village renewal program. Supported by funding from this program, several old agriculture buildings, particularly on Brunnenstraße and Limburgerstraße, were renovated and converted into homes.


City partnership

The twinning of Limburg with
Oudenburg Oudenburg (; ; ; ) is a municipality and city located in the Belgian province of West Flanders. The municipality comprises the city of Oudenburg itself and the towns of Ettelgem, Roksem and Westkerke. On January 1, 2006 Oudenburg had a total ...
,
Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...
had its origin in an initiative of the municipality of Dietkirchen shortly before its incorporation into Limburg.


References


Sources

* Wolf-Heino Struck : Das Stift St. Lubentius in Dietkirchen (The College of St. Lubentius in Dietkirchen), Walter de Gruyter, Berlin 1986 (Part of the series ''Germania Sacra''). * Marie-Luise Crone: Dietkirchen, Geschichte eines Dorfes im Schatten des St. Lubentiusstifts (Dietkirchen, History of a Village in the shadow of St. Lubentius Church), Magistrat der Kreisstadt Limburg an der Lahn, 1991, . * Wilhelm Schäfer: Die Baugeschichte der Stiftskirche St. Lubentius zu Dietkirchen im Lahntal (The architectural history of the Collegiate Church of St. Lubentius of Dietkirchen in the Lahn Valley), self-published by the Historical Commission for Nassau, Wiesbaden 1966. * Schulchronik Dietkirchen: 1825 - 1969 (School Chronicle of Dietkirchen: 1825 - 1969), Magistrat der Kreisstadt Limburg an der Lahn, 2002. * Lorenz Müller: St. Lubentius und Dietkirchen an der Lahn, Eine Untersuchung (St. Lubentius and Dietkirchen an der Lahn, An investigation), self-published by the author, 1969. * Wilhelm Schäfer: Die Stiftskirche St. Lubentius und Juliana zu Dietkirchen im Lahntal (The Collegiate Church of St. Lubentius and Juliana of Dietkirchen in the Lahn Valley), Darmstadt 1964. * Wolf-Heino Struck: Das Nekrologium II des St. Lubentius-Stiftes zu Dietkirchen ad Lahn, Mainz, Ges. f. Mittelrhein. Kirchengeschichte, 1969.


External links


Official Website
{{Authority control Former municipalities in Hesse Limburg-Weilburg