Gehlweiler

Gehlweiler 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.

Geography

Location

The municipality lies on the western slope of the Soonwald, a heavily wooded section of the west-central Hunsrück. Through the village flows the Simmerbach, on whose other side lies the Lützelsoon plateau. Gehlweiler’s population is 254 and its area is 450 ha, of which 249 ha is wooded.

History

Gehlweiler’s history goes back to the 9th and 10th centuries, with the first descriptive mention being found in the ''Urkunden zur Willigskirche bei Auen'' (“Documents at Saint Willigis’s Church near Auen”) from the Church’s Sobernheim rural chapter. Its history is also tightly bound with the former Castle Koppenstein. This castle was under the ownership of the formerly powerful Sponheim dynasty, and as the outlying village, Gehlweiler belonged to the “Koppenstein”, and was thereby itself a Sponheim holding. In 1317, Gehlweiler had its first documentary mention as ''Gelwilre''.

Until 1575, Gehlweiler was assigned to the parish of Getzbach (nowadays Seesbach) and thereafter belonged to the area of the ''Amt'' of Gemünden. In 1707, Gehlweiler passed into Baden’s ownership, without bringing about any appreciable change in the villagers’ lives, however.

Beginning in 1794, Gehlweiler lay under French rule. In 1815 it was assigned to the Kingdom of Prussia at the Congress of Vienna. Since 1946, it has been part of the then newly founded state of Rhineland-Palatinate. Furthermore, since 1970, the ''Ortsgemeinde'' of Gehlweiler has lain under the authority of the ''Verbandsgemeinde'' of Kirchberg, which was put together in that year in the course of administrative restructuring in Rhineland-Palatinate from 40 municipalities from the former ''Ämter'' of Büchenbeuren, Gemünden and Kirchberg along with two ''Ortsgemeinden'' from the ''Amt'' of Rhaunen, and eventually also the town of Kirchberg, which had originally not been part of any ''Verbandsgemeinde''.

Politics

Municipal council

The council is made up of 6 council members, who were elected by majority vote might in English heraldic language be described thus: The base per fess invected of three Or and azure, above which chequy of twenty-four of the same a pale gules charged with a raven sable.

The “chequy” pattern and the raven charge are drawn from the arms formerly borne by the Knights of Koppenstein. Gehlweiler belonged to the Sponheim ''Amt'' of Koppenstein, which for a while was pledged to the Knights. After Castle Koppenstein had fallen into disrepair, the Koppenstein ''Amtsschultheiß'' lived in Gehlweiler. He also bore the “chequy” pattern and the raven in his 18th-century seal. The base refers to the quarrystone bridge over the Simmerbach, a three-arched structure from the 18th century.

Culture and sightseeing

Buildings

The following are listed buildings or sites in Rhineland-Palatinate’s Directory of Cultural Monuments:Directory of Cultural Monuments in Rhein-Hunsrück district
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* Hauptstraße – three-arched bridge over the Simmerbach, 17th or 18th century
* Hauptstraße 16 – former tithe house; timber-frame house, partly solid, Eternit-slated, half-hipped roof, marked 1769 and 1869, timber-frame barn; whole complex of buildings
* Hauptstraße 19 – bakehouse; one-floor plastered building, partly timber-frame, 19th century

* Hauptstraße 26 – estate complex; building with half-hipped roof, timber framing plastered, 1821, timber-frame commercial wings, 19th century, timber-frame smithy
* Hauptstraße 43 – timber-frame house, 18th or 19th century
* Beside Hauptstraße 46 – former bakehouse; one-floor timber-frame building, 17th or 18th century
* Franzenmühle (mill), north of the village, on the millrace/Simmerbach – timber-frame house, partly slated, half-hipped roof, marked 1822, timber-frame shed; whole complex of buildings with millrace

Other buildings

Also of interest is the Castle Koppenstein ruin, from which there is a good view of all the nearby villages (among others, Gemünden, Rohrbach and Henau).

At the ''Alte Schmiede'' (“Old Smithy”) and its accompanying house, nowadays in private ownership, parts of the film ''Heimat'' by Edgar Reitz were made, which made the Hunsrück well known to the world beyond.

References

External links

Municipality’s official webpage



at SWR Fernsehen

{{Authority control
Municipalities in Rhineland-Palatinate
Rhein-Hunsrück-Kreis