Konken is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Kusel district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde of Kusel-Altenglan, whose seat is in Kusel.
Geography
Location The municipality lies in the highlands in the Western Palatinate. With 833 inhabitants, Konken is, after Kusel and Pfeffelbach, the third biggest municipality in the Verbandsgemeinde. The long village of Konken lies roughly 330 m above sea level in a broad, flat-bottomed, seashell-shaped dale that opens towards the east and through which flows the Konker Bach in that same direction. The district seat of Kusel lies to the northeast. In the south and east, the dale abuts a vista of four separate hills, known as the Hettersberg, the Rundwieshübel (404 m), the Harzberg or Harzhöhe (412 m) and the Konker Wart or Konker Warte (414 m). To the north, the other side of the dale is formed by a ridge coming from the west, on whose south slope most of the village stands. This climbs somewhat steeply up to an elevation of roughly 350 m above sea level. In the village’s east, where the ridge flattens out, the Konker Bach flows round in a broad bow into which the Weiherbach, coming from the south, empties within the village itself. Right near the church is found the core of the village. On the village’s north side, the Konker Bach empties into the eastward-flowing Albessbach at the Hasenmühle (“Hare’s Mill”), which is seated within Konken’s municipal limits.Konken’s geography To the village’s north runs Autobahn A 62 (Kaiserslautern–Trier) with its Kusel interchange, which lies partly within Konken’s municipal limits. The major woodlands spread out to the village’s east and in the far west. The municipal area measures 704 ha, of which 10 ha is wooded.Location
Neighbouring municipalities Konken borders in the north on the municipality of Ehweiler, in the east on the municipality of Schellweiler, in the southeast on the municipality of Hüffler, in the south on the municipalities of Wahnwegen and Herschweiler-Pettersheim, in the southwest on the municipality of Langenbach and in the northwest on the municipality of Albessen. Konken also meets the municipality of Selchenbach at a single point in the west.
Constituent communities Also belonging to Konken are the outlying homestead of Rundwieserhof and the commercial park Erlenhöhe.Constituent communities
Municipality’s layout Originally, Konken was a long, narrow linear village (or by some definitions, a “thorpe”) along its through road, which is nowadays called Bundesstraße 420. There were, however, already settled sidestreets by the turn of the 19th century. Sprouting off the main street to the north are Kirchstraße (“Church Street”), at whose corner stands the church with its mediaeval tower, Friedhofsstraße (“Graveyard Street”), at whose upper end lies the graveyard, and Hohlstraße (“Hollow Street”), at what was then the village’s western end. Likewise as far back as the early 19th century, residential developments sprang up on Wahnweger-Straße and Straße Im Eck. All these residential areas spread in the course of the 19th century and early 20th century. In the time after the Second World War, new building zones opened up, mainly in the village’s north. The old, long-settled neighborhoods are still characterized by a few of the Einfirsthäuser (houses with a single roof ridge), which as a rule stand with the eaves facing the street, and which are so typical of the Westrich, a historic region that encompasses areas in both Germany and France. An old schoolhouse, which was used as such until 1965, stands on the through road. It has served as a savings bank (Sparkasse) and a postal agency, but is now used by a newspaper business. A new schoolhouse, dedicated in 1965, stands at the village’s northern edge. Farther northeast lies the sporting ground. Outside the village’s own built-up area, near the Kusel Autobahn interchange, is a commercial-industrial area called Erlenhöhe. The outlying Rundwieserhof homestead lies on the Rundwieshübel’s northern slope on Langenbacher Weg (a road), while the Hasenmühle (“Hare’s Mill”) can be found just outside the built-up area on the Konker Bach right before the Autobahn.Municipality’s layout
History
Antiquity Archaeological finds bear witness to prehistoric human habitation in the environs. Within almost every neighbouring municipality’s limits, untouched prehistoric graves have been unearthed, while in Konken itself, it is suspected that there are such graves in the Hohe Warte area. Richer have been finds in Konken from Gallo-Roman times. Building work in 1966 brought to light the remnants of a villa rustica when its foundations were dug up. Artefacts were unearthed there as well, such as coins and ceramics, as well as a terra sigillata plate with the stamped inscription VERECUNDUS. Some of these finds were given to the museum in Speyer while others ended up in private ownership.Antiquity There have also been finds from several other estates.Konken’s history
Middle Ages Konken is without a doubt one of the oldest places in the so-called Remigiusland. In the 9th-century holding and taxation register kept by the Abbey of Saint-Remi in Reims, the Polyptique, one can read:Census de Conchis. Uno anno XX solidos et VIIII denarios et obulum. In festo Sancti Martini iiii liberas et iii solidos; de sartis iii solidos. Medio martio v solidos de capitalicio. Ad natale Domini x solidos; de oblationibus pullos xxv; cum unoquoque x ova … de mappagiis xxv modios et dimidium de avena, de siligine xii modios et dimidium. While this in itself is a rather dull recitation of taxes levied on the village, it does offer a window on Konken’s early past. Translated from the Mediaeval Latin, it comes out as follows:Revenues from Konken: in one year 20 solidi and 8 denarii and a small donation. At Saint Martin’s festival 4 pounds and 3 solidi; from the workers 3 solidi, in mid-March 5 solidi in capital. On the Lord’s birthday 10 solidi; in chickens 25; at the same time also 10 eggs … furthermore 25 and a half bushels of oats, in legumes 12 and a half bushels. It is unclear, however, which standard of “bushel” was being used. Nevertheless, what is indeed clear is that when the figures given here for Konken are compared against those for the eighteen other Remigiusland places listed in this Polyptique, Konken comes out as one of the wealthiest places in the whole region. The name’s pre-Germanic origins might lead one to the assumption that there was continuous settlement in what is now Konken beginning in Gallo-Roman times. The name “Konken”, though, furnishes no such proof. Theoretically, it could be a settlement from Gallo-Roman times, but what is likelier is that it arose in Frankish times, and simply has a pre-Germanic name drawn from a name still borne at that time by a local waterway. According to this view, Konken would have arisen as a Germanic village in its seashell-shaped dale whose pre-Germanic name was still known. Be that as it may, the village is still surely one of the oldest places in the countryside around Kusel. The time when the village actually arose, however, cannot be ascertained through documents. It is believed that a village grew up bit by bit around a chapel. It was throughout the Middle Ages as seat of an Unteramt and as the hub of a parish always a place of greater importance than many. In 1112, Count Gerlach I, a scion of the Counts of the Nahegau, founded the new County of Veldenz and also exercised the Schutzvogtei (roughly “lord protectorship”) over the Remigiusland. In 1124, Archbishop Adalbert of Mainz confirmed to Abbot Odo of the Abbey of Saint-Remi in Reims the Church of Kusel with its three affiliated churches in Konken, Altenglan and Pfeffelbach. In 1270, Heinrich von Geroldseck founded the Younger Line of Veldenz. In a 1326 document, Count Georg of Veldenz obliged the “Amt of Konken” to pay the knight Sir Harnisch of Bitsch a yearly amount of 100 Heller. That the Amt of Concken also had to pay the knight Sir Johann of Randeck, one of Count of Veldenz Heinrich II’s Burgmannen, 15 pounds in Heller is something that comes to light in a 1339 document. At that time, the count’s young wife, Agnes, was granted the Amt of Konken as a morning gift. All five Schultheißen (head officials in the Unterämter) in the Remigiusland appear in a 1385 document from Counts Heinrich III and Friedrich II of Veldenz, among them one named as “Clays in Concken”. In 1444, the County of Veldenz met its end when Count Friedrich III of Veldenz died without a male heir. His daughter Anna wed King Ruprecht’s son Count Palatine Stephan. By uniting his own Palatine holdings with the now otherwise heirless County of Veldenz – his wife had inherited the county, but not her father’s title – and by redeeming the hitherto pledged County of Zweibrücken, Stephan founded a new County Palatine, as whose comital residence he chose the town of Zweibrücken: the County Palatine – later Duchy – of Palatinate-Zweibrücken.Middle Ages Beginning in the Middle Ages, Konken was a market centre. From all over the region came the dealers and farmers to the Martinimarkt (“Saint Martin’s Day Market”). Later a Sommermarkt (“Summer Market”) was also held. By the mid 18th century, marketgoers could reach the market on one of the district’s few paved roads.
Modern times Konken now shared the Duchy’s history until this new state itself came to an end in the time of the French Revolution. Surviving from 1556 is a Weistum from the village (a Weistum – cognate with English wisdom – was a legal pronouncement issued by men learned in law in the Middle Ages and early modern times) which deals mainly with how high the taxes were that had to be paid. Like all the Kusel region’s villages, Konken, too, suffered greatly from the Plague and the Thirty Years' War, the latter being particularly frightful in the Konken area. According to an Oberamt of Lichtenberg ecclesiastical organizational protocol, in 1609 – nine years before the war – there were 127 inhabitants living in Konken, all of whose names were recorded. As a rule, no village in the region had anywhere near 100 inhabitants. The village’s importance could also be seen in the taxes assessed for it, which were notably higher than for the neighbouring villages. During the Thirty Years' War, though, all the inhabitants left the village. Most were likely killed, particularly given the 1635 massacre by Croatian troops from the Imperial army, and in the end, Konken, along with its church, was burnt down. After the war ended in 1648, newcomers mainly from Switzerland and the Tyrol bolstered the now almost annihilated pre-war population, although some of the refugees came back, too. By 1675, Konken once again had nine families and roughly 36 inhabitants. Then, towards the end of the 17th century came the plundering by French King Louis XIV’s troops, which further reduced the population. From that time onwards, however, steady expansion with strong population growth set in, and already by the 18th century, some villagers were leaving to seek their fortunes abroad.Modern times
Recent times