Münchwald is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Bad Kreuznach district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde of Rüdesheim, whose seat is in the municipality of Rüdesheim an der Nahe. Münchwald is a state-recognized tourism community (Fremdenverkehrsort),Statistisches Landesamt Rheinland-Pfalz – Regionaldaten and with a founding date going back only as far as the time around 1700, it is also one of the district's newest municipalities.
Geography
Location Münchwald lies roughly halfway between Bad Kreuznach and Simmern, about 20 km from each, in the southern Hunsrück, right at the Soonwald on a plateau, some 400 m above sea level.
Land use As at 31 December 2012, the 1.46 km2 making up Münchwald's municipal area broke down as follows: Use Percentage Agriculture 61.5 Woodland 15.2 Open water 1.4 Residential and transport 21.5 Other 0.4
Neighbouring municipalities Clockwise from the north, Münchwald's neighbours are the municipalities of Spabrücken, Argenschwang and Spall and Gebroth, all of which likewise lie within the Bad Kreuznach district.
Constituent communities Also belonging to Münchwald are the outlying homesteads of Haus Gräfenbach, Kesselshäuschen and Struthof.Statistisches Landesamt Rheinland-Pfalz – Amtliches Verzeichnis der Gemeinden und Gemeindeteile , Seite 16 (PDF; 2,3 MB)
History
The Dadenborn monastic estate At New Year's 1147, long before there was any village called Münchwald, the free noble Godebold III of Weierbach promised to take part in a crusade to the Holy Land. Since he did not keep this promise, he atoned for his sin by donating his estate, an area now within Münchwald's limits, to Bernard of Clairvaux, who then passed it on to the Cistercian Eberbach Abbey in the Rheingau (the building complex still stands near present-day Eltville). From this donation, enlarged by further donations, arose the Dadenborn monastic estate, as described in Eberbach Abbey's directory of holdings, the Oculus Memoriae (“Eye of Memory”). In 1219, Bishop of Speyer Conrad acknowledged the Dadenborn monastic estate's freedom from tithes. Professor Konrad Eckes interpreted the name Dadenborn as Dados Brunnen (or in English, “Dado’s Spring/Well”). The greatest part of the lands belonging to the monastic estate was wooded, and it had to be cleared by the monks, lay brethren and other, dependent people. The composition on Münchwald's coat of arms refers to this event. In a 1369 document, the monastic estate was mentioned once again. According to another document, this one handed down by the court at Spabrücken, the estate, which Eberbach Abbey had granted as a pledge to the Junker Ulrich von Leyen, was sometime between 1420 and 1476 given up. On 27 March 1531, Eberbach Abbey sold the Stewards of Worms, called von Dalberg, its forest near Spabrücken at the edge of the Soon, called Dadenborn, with all appurtenances for 1,150 Gulden in bad money in Electoral Mainz currency, with a Gulden reckoned to be worth 24 Albus. As to just where the monastic estate lay – nothing is now left of it – Jakob Leister gave the following information in a protocol received in 1764 in Trarbach, possibly by the Amtmann Fabert:The district…is called…Münchwald because the monks lived in that very place (NB: The German word for “monk” is Mönch) and had their house in the area not far from the spring, where the master (meaning the knacker Roth; today Haus Fetsch) lives, about a stone’s throw therefrom, and it is known to everybody, since the foundations and the stone therefrom are still dug out. This house was in the end wholly in disrepair and the whole thing according to legend passed to the Lords of Dalberg… As to the question of whether anything more of the old Münchwald was standing, Jakob Leister answered “Yes, at the Steinenberg and the ironworks something was left standing, but was especially hewn out”. Godebold's old estate may not have stood the test of time as a monastic institution, but it did at least establish the locality's, and thus the later village's, name.
Münchwald under the Dalbergs’ lordship In 1700, the Imperial lordship gave the blacksmith Mathes Hauprich from Spabrücken and Jost Klein from Lingerhahn leave to lay out two estates on the Münchwald. They were allowed to clear and make into cropfields 60 Morgen in the so-called “forest”, which was measured out for them by the hunter and the Schultheiß of Spabrücken and by the surveyor. Furthermore, the meadows named the Phuhlwiese, the Molkenborner Wiese and the Hofackerwiese were to be made into orderly meadows. For building houses, farmsteads, barns and stables, places were set aside for the two men on the Rech (a steep but short, grassy slopeDefinition of Rech at the Pfälzisches Wörterbuch). The buildings were to be arranged “in an orderly fashion and in a straight line”, which even today can still be seen on the village's main street. It was also agreed to grant Schwikert Hermann from Lingerhahn an estate of 30 Morgen on the Münchwald along with its attendant meadows, and he, too, was to add his house to the straight line. For the land that they had been granted, the settlers enjoyed nine years of freedom before they then had to pay a yearly rental. In 1701, two more men, Leonhard Hessel and Johann Freysem, were allowed to settle in Münchwald along with the three others, and they, too, were granted land that they could clear. In 1723, the families headed by Hermann Leister, Cornelius Bartholome, Anton Hessel, Franz Bauer and Philipp Klein lived in Münchwald. At the 1764 “Renovation”, for which a map was even compiled (a copy can be found at the municipal archive), properties consisted of farmyards, gardens, cropland and meadows in entailed estates held by the following: Landholder Area Thomas Melsheimer 32½ Morgen, 25.2 Ruten Oster Bartholome 33¾ Morgen, 37.2 Ruten Johannes Pfälzer 37¾ Morgen, 15.2 Ruten Philipp Klein 31½ Morgen, 11.2 Ruten Johannes Roth 25½ Morgen, 37 Ruten Georg Müller's widow 32½ Morgen, 23.2 Ruten Dalenmühl 11¾ Morgen, 39 Ruten So-called Müller Lipsen Mühl (mill) 4¼ Morgen, 19 Ruten
Even today, using this map and other cadastral surveys, those early settlers’ houses can be identified as ones still standing in the village now. In 1789, Friedrich Franz Karl, Steward of Worms, Baron of and at Dalberg, Electoral Mainz Secret Counsellor, in his capacity as administrator for his cousin Karl Alexander, who held title to the Münchwald together with its estates and the people bound to them, offered Münchwald for sale to the House of Baden. One reason for the sale is believed to have been that both parties had their interests in the place, which time and again had led to disputes over each party's rights. Selling Münchwald to Baden would end the continual disagreements. Whatever the grounds, on 30 October 1789, the sale agreement between Friedrich Franz Karl and Margrave Karl Friedrich of Baden was concluded, and Münchwald passed to Baden for a price of 16,000 Rhenish guilders. On 29 March 1790, representatives of the Badish Amt of Winterburg and the Dalberg Amt of Wallhausen met at knacker Roth's house in Münchwald to discuss implementing the sale agreement. The next day, the dwellers of Münchwald's farms, namely Johannes Müller, Philipp Klein, Thomas Pfälzer, Wilhelm Bartholome, Peter Tullius, Adam and Andreas Roth (the late Johannes Roth's sons), Johannes Pfälzer, Konrad Pfälzer and Peter Müller, had to appear in Winterburg to render homage to the Margrave of Baden. The Margraviate of Baden, though, did not hold Münchwald for very long, for already by the 1790s, French Revolutionary troops had occupied the German lands on the Rhine’s left bank and incorporated them into the French State. During the time of Revolutionary and later Napoleonic French rule – the exact date is unknown, but might have been 1804 or 1805 – Münchwald became part of the municipality of Spall, or at least documents dealing with Münchwald were issued by the municipality of Spall. Beginning in 1822, the municipality of Spall insisted upon splitting the municipal union, reasoning that Münchwald was set apart from Spall by Spall boundary stones anyway, and that in the event of longstanding ties with Spall, Münchwald villagers would deem themselves entitled to claim rights to Spall’s communal resources.
The Dittenburger, Litter and Roth families of knackers The knacker Heinrich Dittenburger (also Dillenburger) was sent in 1705 by the joint Sponheim government from Spall to Münchwald to preserve Sponheim’s rights in Münchwald. He was given the use of a cottage belonging to the Dalberg subjects that had stood empty owing to disagreements between the inhabitants of the Amt of Winterburg and the Münchwald villagers. He was to make as much land into cropland as the Dalberg subjects had cleared. Heinrich Dittenburger, however, died in 1707. His widow Susanna (d. 28 August 1759), married Lorenz Litter (d. 24 June 1758), likewise a knacker, in 1708. He, too, was “forced by the common lordship to remain on the Münchwald to oppose Dalberg intentions as much as possible”. Lorenz Litter had built himself a house by 1727 and had at last set up his estate. Seemingly, the knacker was even accepted over time by the Dalberg lordship, for on 15 March 1730, Franz Eckenbert, Steward of Worms and Baron of Dalberg, awarded him the right to practise the knacker's trade in the Dalberg lordly domain “as long as he lives”, and also the Molkenborner Wiese (a meadow), although he had to pay for this right. The fee was 10 Rhenish guilders yearly, to be paid each year at Martinmas to the stewardship in Wallhausen. From the Sponheim side, too, Lorenz Litter received a letter of Erbbestand (a uniquely German landhold arrangement in which ownership rights and usage rights are separated; this is forbidden by law in modern Germany) dated 25 June 1737. On 8 October 1737, the knacker Johannes Roth from Wesel wed Anna Maria, Lorenz Litter's daughter, and thus founded the Family Roth, who lived in Münchwald until the early 20th century. The Family Roth also earned great fame as Knochenheiler (“bone healers”).
The Struthof