Nieder Kostenz 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 in the central Hunsrück in the Kyrbach valley, 2 km west of Kirchberg. The rural residential community has an area of 4.12 km2, of which 1.19 km2 is wooded.
History
Municipality’s name The placename Nieder Kostenz first cropped up in 1310 in the Sponheimisches Gefälleregister, a taxation register kept by the County of Sponheim. Over the years, various spellings of the name appear on the historical record:Municipality’s name
1310 – Costencia 1321 – Nydder-Costentzen 1361 – Nyder-Costentzen 1365 – Nyddern-Costentz 1399 – Nedercostencien 1411 – Nydercostencien 1414 – Nydern-Costenz 1762 – Nieder Costentz 1775 – Niedercostentz 1835 – Niedercostenz 1950 – Niederkostenz 1976 – Nieder Kostenz
Prehistory and protohistory When Nieder Kostenz actually arose and when the first settlers came are things that nobody can answer with any certainty. A great many archaeological finds in the area, however, grave goods such as bronze rings and belt plaques, iron lance heads, iron combat knives and coins from Roman Emperor Vespasian’s time, bear witness to Celtic-Roman settlement in the area. There have been other Roman finds, too: foundation walls from a Roman settlement, a water duct, tiles and potsherds.
Julius Caesar’s writings identify the Hunsrück and neighbouring regions as the realm of the Treveri, a people of mixed Celtic and Germanic stock, from whom the Latin name for the city of Trier, Augusta Treverorum, is also derived. Nieder Kostenz’s current site was in Caesar’s time part of the Imperial province of Germania Superior.
By AD 496, the Franks were locally the undisputed rulers. Nieder Kostenz belonged to the Nahegau.Nieder Kostenz’s prehistory and protohistory
The Counts of Sponheim Bit by bit, the Gaugrafen, the counts who headed the Gaue, ceased to be mere royal officials and became more autonomous. In the 11th century, the Counts of Sponheim came to lead the Nahegau. Mechthild, the last daughter of the Counts of Dill (or Dyll), wed Count Maginhard of Sponheim in 1124, thus putting Nieder Kostenz, which had hitherto belonged to Dill, under the Counts of Sponheim. In 1233, the parts of the County of Sponheim on the Rhine’s left bank were split between two lines of the comital house, with the two resulting parts known as the “Further” and “Hinder” Counties. Nieder Kostenz found itself in the former, ruled by the Kreuznach line, which died out in its male line in 1414. The heir was Countess Elisabeth of Sponheim. Her county, however, did not remain entirely with her or her heirs. She ceded one fifth to Electoral Palatinate in 1416, and after her death, the remaining four fifths passed to the Sponheim-Starkenburg line, with Electoral Palatinate receiving a further fifth of the “Further” County in 1422. Once the Starkenburg line had died out in 1437, three fifths of the “Further” County went to the County of Veldenz and Baden. When the Counts of Veldenz, too, died out, they were succeeded by Palatinate-Simmern. Under the 1509 treaty, the fifth ceded to Electoral Palatinate in 1422 was transferred to Simmern; from 1610 to 1659, the fifth ceded to Electoral Palatinate in 1416 also belonged to Simmern. From 1673 on, however, only Electoral Palatinate and Baden were still involved in the “Further” County of Sponheim. When Badish holdings were shared out in 1515, the share of the “Further” County of Sponheim went to the Margrave of Baden. These various parts of the County of Sponheim were long jointly ruled, with the “Further” County considered to be a condominium jointly held by Electoral Palatinate and Baden, with the former holding a three-fifths share and the latter holding a two-fifths share. On 24 August 1707, the “Further” County was sundered in a treaty between Electoral Palatinate and Baden-Baden, and in 1771, the Margraves’ share passed to Baden.
Counts of Sponheim had their seat in Bad Kreuznach. Nieder Kostenz was in the Amt of Kirchberg and more locally in the Pflege (literally “care”, but actually a local geopolitical unit headed by a Pflegeschultheiß) of Kostenz. This was further divided during Badish rule into three smaller Pflegen, Belg, Denzen and Nieder Kostenz. Through all these divisions, administration was never divided, only the earnings from these lands. The rulers were joint lords (Gemeinherren). In 1707, however, this arrangement came to an end after three centuries; the “Further” County passed to Baden, remaining with it, even after a further division in 1776, until 1794.
The Reformation and the Thirty Years' War Under a decree issued by Frederick, Duke of Palatinate-Simmern (who would soon also become Frederick III, Elector Palatine) on 16 July 1557, the Reformation was introduced into the Principality of Simmern. This automatically changed the subjects’ faith to make it the same as their ruler's.
In the Thirty Years' War, first the Spaniards, and then later the Swedes plundered and starved the region around Nieder Kostenz. Oral lore has it that there was a great famine in the area between 1635 and 1642. Moreover, many people fell victim to the Plague. King Louis XIV's French troops occupied the Palatinate and the Hunsrück in 1673, resulting in further plundering and laying waste. After Charles II, Elector Palatine died childless, war broke out yet again – the Nine Years' War (known in Germany as the Pfälzischer Erbfolgekrieg, or War of the Palatine Succession). This time, Louis XIV felt he had a right to make certain claims to the Palatinate because the late Charles's only sister, Elizabeth Charlotte of the Palatinate (“Liselotte”), was married to the French king's brother, the Duke of Orléans.
In 1688, de facto religious freedom was introduced, and the available churches were allotted to either Catholic or Evangelical congregations, or in some cases, the two denominations would have to share a simultaneous church.
Badish times Margrave Charles Frederick set himself to improving economic circumstances. Since the Hunsrück was then purely farmland, he strove to further agriculture. The farmers were made to undertake seed exchanging. Potato raising was forced. Cropraising was expanded and the yields were improved by introducing the three-field system. Presently, there was an attempt to move away from the simple pastoral economy to indoor breeding. The mean cattle and horse breeds were improved. It was forbidden to thatch roofs. It was also in Badish times that there were considerable improvements to infrastructure. Many roads were sealed, public building projects were undertaken and churches were built.
French rule Under the treaty of 22 August 1796, Baden ceded all its holdings on the Rhine’s left bank to France. Nieder Kostenz belonged to the Department of Rhin-et-Moselle. Nieder Kostenz became a Mairie (“Mayoralty”) to which the following places also belonged: Kappel, Kludenbach, Metzenhausen, Ober Kostenz, Reckershausen, Schwarzen, Todenroth and Würrich. French became the official language, the Code civil des Français became the law of the land and a civil registry was introduced, in addition to the similar function that was still being performed by the Church. Also, the French Republican Calendar was introduced, although the Gregorian calendar was reintroduced in 1806
Prussian rule The new Prussian administration that began in 1816 was not the only change brought about by the downfall of Napoleon's empire and its dismemberment by the Congress of Vienna. There were changes for agriculture, too. One goal was to dismantle the extensive pastoral economy. Heath and coppice lands were to be forested. The municipality, though, did not want to forsake the rights that it had won in the 17th century, as witnessed by two suits recorded in court documents in the Koblenz State Archives. In Dillendorf’s and Nieder Kostenz's submission in the case against the Prussian government, Dillendorf wanted to prove to the government that it had held grazing rights in the Dillwald (forest, now called the Brauschied) since the 17th century, and that it had the right to burn forest and use woodlands for haymaking. In the other court case from 1816, the villages of Kappel, Kludenbach, Todenroth, Metzenhausen, Nieder Kostenz, Ober Kostenz and Schwarzen fought against having to give up grazing rights, including the right to graze swine on acorns in the Hinterwald (forest). Nieder Kostenz had to forgo grazing rights at that time, although some other villages were allowed to keep them for a while.
Prussia forested the Dillwald, thus greatly limiting grazing. Moreover, Napoleon had sold a great deal of land off formerly held by local lords while he was in power, leaving rather little for the local farmers. This forced them to turn more towards intensive farming. This, however, meant that greater capital had to be sunk into the endeavour, something that many poorer families, and those with many children, simply could not manage. Furthermore, because land was being shared out among heirs in bequests, plots were becoming ever smaller, until it reached the point at which the land could no longer be subdivided.
Meanwhile, agents were trying to get people to settle in South America, especially in Brazil, which was willing to make available to any settler 70 to 80 ha of land, which was quite an inducement. Many young couples who had nothing to their name but their willingness to work felt forced to leave the Hunsrück forever and emigrate, either to South America or to the industrial centres, to seek the livelihood that eluded them at home.
German Empire In the 1866 Austro-Prussian War, six men from Nieder Kostenz took part; eight took part in the Franco-Prussian War (1870–1871). None of these was either wounded or killed. The time following this war is known as the Gründerzeit – the Founders’ Time. It was in 1871 that the German Empire was founded. It was also in 1871 that the Kirchberg Savings and Loan Association was founded by, among others, Philipp Quaer II, who was from Nieder Kostenz, and who was later also the Association's chairman. The old pastoral economy, in which livestock was tended by herdsmen in the forest and on the heath, came to an end sometime around the turn of the 20th century. By that time, there was not only a paid herdsman, but also a herdsman's barn. This was later converted into a bull stable in 1901 and 1902; until 1894, it had had a thatch. In 1875, a cloudburst in the Kyrbach valley led to a great flood. The bridge in the village was heavily damaged while the one on the provincial road was partly swept away. As in many villages in the Hunsrück, an “Emperor’s Oak” was planted in Nieder Kostenz on Kaiser Wilhelm I's one hundredth birthday, 22 March 1897 (he had been dead for nine years by this time). It still stands today.Prussian rule
20th century In 1905, the municipality built a livestock scale. In late 1986 it was sold, as slaughter cattle were being sold at the price of dead meat and the scale had become unprofitable. On 20 June 1906, at the smith Friedrich Klein's house, a public telephone facility was installed. The municipality subsidized it.
The First World War