Kirchhundem () is a German municipality in North Rhine-Westphalia. It belongs to the Olpe district.
Geography
Location The municipality of Kirchhundem lies in the Olpe district's southeast in the south Sauerland and belongs to the so-called Bilsteiner Bergland (mountain region). The Kirchhundem rural areas also include, in the east, the West (Rüsper) Rothaar and part of the Auer Ederbergland, in the south the Brachthäuser Hohe Waldberge (all mountain ranges), in the west the Rahrbacher Mulde (basin) and in the north the Hundemgrund. The crest of the Rothaar forms a watershed between the Rhine and the Sieg. The municipality's highest elevation can be found here, the Hohe Hessel at 743 m. The Kirchhundem area is drained by the Hundem, which rises near Oberhundem and flows northwest to the Lenne. The Hundem is fed from the south by the Heinsberger Bach – also known as the Albaumer Bach (Bach is German for "brook") – whose mouth is near Würdinghausen, the brook variously known as the Brachthauser-, Wirmer- or Flaperbach and the Olpe, whose mouth is in Kirchhundem. The Silberger Bach empties into the Olpe near Heidschott. The Rüspe area east of the Rothaar crest is drained by streams flowing to the Eder.
Kirchhundem is roughly 20 km east of Olpe and 25 km north of Siegen.
Municipal area’s extent Kirchhundem, with an area of 147.9 km2, is the Olpe district's biggest municipality by land area. It stretches for 12 km from north to south and 22 km from east to west.
Neighbouring municipalities The municipality of Kirchhundem lies in the east of the district area. It borders in the west and north on the towns of Olpe and Lennestadt and in the far northeast on the town of Schmallenberg in the Hochsauerlandkreis. In the east and south, the towns of Bad Berleburg, Erndtebrück, Hilchenbach and Kreuztal, all lying in Siegen-Wittgenstein district, also abut Kirchhundem.
Municipal limit The municipality's southern limit with the neighbouring district of Siegen-Wittgenstein has more than one function: in the east, it is the watershed between the Rhine and Weser and in the west between the Sieg and Ruhr. It is also a dialectal boundary, and a religious boundary, with areas to the south traditionally Evangelical and those to the north Catholic. Historically it was also the border between the Duchy of Westphalia, a possession of the Electorate of Cologne in the north, and the Principality of Nassau-Siegen and the County of Wittgenstein-Berleburg in the south. This time is still witnessed by many historic border stones and old fortification walls known to people in the victorious lands as the Kölsches Heck (roughly "Cologne Hedge").
Constituent municipalities The municipality of Kirchhundem consists of the following centres:
PlaceInhabitantsmunicipality of Kirchhundem, as at: 30 June 2007 Ahe 6 Albaum 814 Alpenhaus 5 Arnoldihof 5 Benolpe 495 Berghof 8 Bettinghof 10 Böminghausen 44 Böminghauser Werk 4 Brachthausen 484 Breitenbruch 6 Emlinghausen 41 Erlhof 56PlaceInhabitants Flape 258 Haus Bruch 7 Heidschott 24 Heinsberg 1,041 Herrntrop 133 Hofolpe 808 Kirchhundem 2,273 Kohlhagen 3 Kruberg 135 Mark 7 Marmecke 388 Oberhundem 979 Rahrbach 712 PlaceInhabitants Rhein-Weser-Turm 9 Rinsecke 246 Rüspe 35 Schwartmecke 118 Selbecke 198 Silberg 474 Stelborn 38 Varste 219 Welschen Ennest 1,661 Wirme 189 Würdinghausen 1,069 other places 2 Total 13,004
Climate Yearly precipitation averages between 900 and 1 300 mm while the average temperature for the year as a whole ranges between 6 and 8 °C.
History
Up until roughly the 8th century, thick broadleaf forests blanketed what is now Kirchhundem's municipal area. Beeches dominated the hills and slopes while oaks, elms, maples and other kinds of trees held sway in the dales.
The first people are believed to have settled in the area of the Altes Feld ("Old Field") near Kirchhundem and in the Olpe Valley. About the 9th century they began clearing and settling activities, which lasted until the 13th century.
The Hundem area's – "curia nomine homede" – first documentary mention might be the one found in one of Emperor Frederick I's documents from the year 1153. This attribution, however, is as much disputed as the other documents. The oldest undisputed reference is a document from the Kirchhundem parish archive from the year 1249, in which the conditions are laid out whereby Vogt (roughly "reeve") Widekind of Hundem (a mediaeval name for Kirchhundem's main centre) was to allow his people and others to make the Margaretenaltar at Hundem their own.
As a second centre, Würdinghausen was mentioned in 1270. Only nine years later, so were Bettinghusen (Bettinghof), Böminghausen, Emlinghausen and Flape. In the two centuries that followed, almost all the centres that now make up today's municipality were mentioned in documents. Furthermore, many other centres are named that have since been forsaken.
At its beginnings, the area was held by the Noble Lords of Gevore-Bilstein. Johann II von Bilstein relinquished his lordly claim to Count Gottfried IV of Arnsberg in 1350. After Johann's death in 1363, however, Gottfried could not assert his claim to the land of Bilstein and it fell to Count Engelbert III von der Mark. As a result of the Soest Feud, the land of Bilstein, and thereby also the area that is now the municipality of Kirchhundem, ended up in the ownership of the Archbishop of Cologne in 1445. The area was held by the Electorate of Cologne right up until 1802-1803, its overlordship ending only with Secularization. The former Duchy of Westphalia passed to the Landgrave at Hesse-Darmstadt. He introduced, through many reforms after 350 years of church control, the end of the Middle Ages in the southern Sauerland. After Napoleon's abdication, Grand Duke Ludwig I also had to relinquish his holdings in Prussia, which he had only acquired a few years earlier. The area was incorporated into the newly formed Prussian Province of Westphalia. Under Prussian governance, other reforms were implemented. Among other things, the Amt of Kirchhundem, the current municipality's forerunner, was brought into being in the course of the introduction of the Landgemeindeordnung ("Rural municipality Ordinance") in 1843.G. Becker, M. Vormberg: Kirchhundem, Geschichte des Amtes und der Gemeinde.
The municipality of Kirchhundem in its current form came into being on 1 July 1969 on the occasion of municipal reforms. Kirchhundem was assigned areas formerly belonging to the municipalities of Heinsberg, Kohlhagen and Oberhundem in the old Amt of Kirchhundem, parts of the former municipality of Kirchhundem and the municipality of Rahrbach (excepting the villages of Fahlenscheid and Benolpe), formerly belonging to the Amt of Bilstein.
Religion Owing to its long historical connection with possessions of the Archbishop of Cologne, the municipality of Kirchhundem is overwhelmingly Catholic in character. Although it is right near the overwhelmingly Evangelical Siegerland, there were only a few Evangelical inhabitants here in the past. A considerable mix of the two denominations came about only through the population shifts that resulted from the Second World War.
Catholic Within the municipal area are twelve Catholic parishes (Albaum, Benolpe, Heinsberg, Hofolpe, Kirchhundem, Kohlhagen, Marmecke, Oberhundem, Rahrbach, Silberg, Welschen-Ennest and Würdinghausen). The oldest parishes in Kirchhundem, Oberhundem and Rahrbach, have existed since at least the 13th century. Two parishes split away from the parish of Kirchhundem in the 17th century to form separate parishes: Heinsberg (1628) and Kohlhagen (1655).
Owing to a dearth of priests and money over the last few years, it has been impossible to fill some ecclesiastical posts. Instead, the Church has organized groups of parishes into clusters called Pastoralverbunde, each overseen by several priests. The parishes of Albaum, Heinsberg, Hofolpe, Kirchhundem, Marmecke, Oberhundem and Würdinghausen form one such cluster, named the Pastoralverbund Hundemtal and another such cluster is made up of the parishes of Benolpe, Kohlhagen, Rahrbach, Silberg and Welschen-Ennest and named the Pastoralverbund Am Cölschen Heck.
Evangelical The greater part of the Evangelical parishioners within Kirchhundem's municipal area are served by the parish of Lennestadt-Kirchhundem while a smaller number are served by the parish of Krombach. In Würdinghausen stands the Emmauskirche, Kirchhundem's only Evangelical church.
Population
Politics
Municipal council
Results of the municipal election on 26 September 2004PartyVotes± compared to 1999SeatsCDU42.6% -19.9%11SPD27.1% +0.3%7FW25.7%+19.4%7Grüne4.6%+0.1%1
Mayor The current mayor is Björn Jarosz (CDU), elected in September 2020.
Mayors of the Bürgermeisterei and of the Amt of Kirchhundem Sources::de:BürgermeistereiThe “Bürgermeisterei” was an old Prussian arrangement whereby several municipalities would have the same government-appointed mayor. 1829–1830: Schwermer (Heinsberg) 1830–1851: Johann Adam Engelbert Sommer (Kirchhundem) 1851–1859: Haverkamp (Würdinghausen) 1859–1872: Engelbert Brüning (Vasbach) 1872–1902: Friedrich Brüning (Vasbach) 1902–1912: Clemens Statzner 1912–1931: Johann Henken 1931–1934: Dr. Adolf Marx (on leave by 1933) 1934–1945: Dr. Siegfried Hucke (as of 1942 called into the forces) 1942–1943: Wurm (Wenden) commissary 1943-1945: Fritz Contzen (Attendorn) commissary 1945–1945: Josef Schmidt (Altenhundem)
In 1946 came the separation of administration (Amtsdirektor) and representation (Bürgermeister, or mayor).
Honorary Amtsbürgermeister 1946–1946: Bernhard Oppenheim (Kirchhundem) 1946–1948: Dr. Wilhelm Deitmer (Saalhausen) 1948–1961: Johann Stangier (Altenhundem) 1961–1969: Karl Nöcker (Altenhundem, later Selbecke)
Amtsdirektoren 1947–1961: Ernst Großheim 1961–1969: Franz-Josef Hackmann
In 1969, the Amt of Kirchhundem was dissolved. Great parts of the Amt area passed to the newly created municipality of Kirchhundem. At the same time, the official nomenclature changed.
Honorary Mayors 1969–1994: Karl-Josef Luster-Haggeney 1994–1999: Elmar Greiten
municipality Directors 1969–1982: Franz-Josef Hackmann 1982–1992: Rudolf Lange 1993–1999: Hans-Adolf Bender
Mayors 1999–2004: Elmar Greiten 2004–2013: Michael Grobbel 2014–2020: Andreas Reinery 2020–incumbent: Björn Jarosz
Coat of arms
The municipal arms were conferred on the municipality of Kirchhundem on 24 February 1972, and they are those formerly borne by the old Amt of Kirchhundem. The billets (small rectangles) are an historical reference; they were taken from the coat of arms borne by the Knights of Hundem. The hart’s antlers refer to the wealth of red deer in the Kirchhundem area. The Wolfsangel symbolizes the municipality’s agricultural character.
Town partnerships
Since 1989 there has been a partnership arrangement with the French town of Houplines. The partner municipality lies in the northeast of France near Lille. Contacts between Kirchhundem and Houplines take place mainly at the club level. On the occasion of a visit by members of the Kirchhundem municipal council to Houplines in November 2006, a new housing estate there called the Résidence Kirchhundem was dedicated by both municipalities’ mayors. To strengthen the town partnership, the club Freunde von Houplines ("Friends of Houplines") has been founded.
Culture and sightseeing
Kirchhundem offers, with its location on the Rothaarsteig trail, which runs from Brilon to Dillenburg, recreational activity that is especially interesting for hikers. As well, there is another trail, the Kirchhundemer Rundwanderweg running for roughly 90 km along the municipal limits. A favourite hiking destination is the Rhein-Weser-Turm (tower) near Oberhundem, from which there are good views over the southern Sauerland.