Figures / Data / Facts about Spiesen-Elversberg
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Where does the name Spiesen come from?
von Werner Weckler
I came across the renewed attempt to research the name of our village Spiesen when I read in our monthly journal "Unser Echo" the gloss with the photo of a reader about the "Spieser lifts" near Oberjoch, municipality Bad Hindelang in the Allgäu. The name of the mountain station comes from the mountain "Der Spieser" (1641 m) in the skiing area there.
After I had written to the municipality of Bad Hindelang to learn something about the mountain name "Der Spieser", I was referred to a local historian from Bad Oberdorf, who deals with field names on behalf of the municipality. The volunteer employee in the local history service who I wrote to could not help me, however, and referred me to an Allgäu field name expert who used to live there, who might be able to help me, but who lives at Lake Constance in the meantime.
The written down field name expert, Mr. Thaddäus Steiner, tried to help with some interpretations. He referred to the Old High German words: der spiz (spit), or die spizza (pile, summit). Of the Middle High German words, the names: der spiz, spitz, spitze continued the old meaning of pointed objects such as: spit, stake, palisade, pile. With the information of Mr. Steiner, who as an Allgäuer, as he wrote, also has no regional knowledge, likewise no local and historical development of Spiesen, thus no progress in the interpretation of the name Spiesen was to be won.
But in one thing the connection with him was successful: through him as an experienced capacity in matters of field names I learned afterwards that there is already an interpretation of the place name Spiesen in the German Place Name Book, ed. Manfred Niemeyer, in Walter de Gruyter-Verlag, Berlin/Boston 2012, namely by the author Dr. Christa Jochum-Godglück at the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Saarland in Saarbrücken.
After contacting Dr. Jochum-Godglück I received the following letter from her:
Regarding your inquiry about the name Spiesen, I can explain the following: in the first mention of 1195, the name of Spiesen already denotes a settlement. Before that, however, the name initially referred to a field. When a settlement finally developed there, this field name became - secondarily - the name of a settlement. The name Spiesen is therefore older than the settlement. However, it is not possible to say when the settlement came into being. The name certainly refers to the shape of the surrounding area. In our archives of the settlement and field names of the Saarland and the Germanophone Lorraine, we have the field name "Di Spitz" which has been handed down in dialect. Perhaps the name can also be related to the geographical location of the present settlement. I hope I could help you with this information.
Here the extract from the "German place name book" about Spiesen-Elversberg, page 598, by Dr.Christa Jochum-Godglück :
- - Spiesen: 1195 (Kop.15. Jh.) Spize, 1295 apud Spizzen (Or), 1486 Spiszen (Or); Spiesen (1490 Or).
- Spiesen: ahd. (bi thera) spizzun, dat. to ahd. spizza "point, spike, palisade, mound, summit". Spiesen belongs to the secondary SiN (settlement names), where names that served to identify field names became SiN.
A personal visit to Dr. Christa Jochum-Godglück in Saarbrücken did not bring any further findings, but a renewed confirmation of her results in the said article in the German Place Name Book.
The result of my research is that the name "spize" could only be a field name at the first mention of our village. The inhabitants had given this already existing field name to their settlement as a settlement name. In the case of Spiesen, the interpretations pile point, palisade and summit are out of the question, because nothing is known of an early defensive structure and there can be no question of a mountain peak. Therefore, it can be assumed that the interpretations mound or slope are more likely. If one looks at the topography of Spiesen and assumes that the place of origin of the settlement was the church with cemetery and its immediate surroundings, as is the case in many settlements, one comes closest to this interpretation. The catholic church (in former times with cemetery) and the houses, which can be seen in old views irregularly and directly around the church, are actually situated on a small hill respectively on the slope in front of the steep Butterberg. Since the settlement was also in desperate need of water, this spot was exactly the place in front of which the two mother streams, coming from Hintereck and Elversberg, flowed together.
Published in the November 2014 issue of the Spiesen-Elversberg monthly magazine "Unser Echo".
Year | Event | |
1195 | Count Ludewich of Sarwerde donates an acre near Spizze to the monastery of Wadgassen for his salvation. First documentary mention of Spiesens. | |
1197 | Pope Cölestin III confirms to the monastery of Wadgassen its rights to a mansus near Spize and all goods in Sizwilre. | |
1286 | First mention of the church at Spizzen. Contract Neumünster with knight Friedrich von Stein about the right to occupy a parish | |
1295 | This knight and his wife sell their property in Spizzen to the monastery of Wadgassen. | |
1307 | Settlement of a dispute between knight Joffried of Saarbrücken and the monastery of Wadgassen on the one hand and the monastery of Neumünster on the other hand about the patronage right of the church (ecclesie de Spissa). | |
1331 | Settlement of a dispute between Wadgassen and the brothers Joffried and Reinhold of Saarbrücken about ownership in Spiesen. | |
1345 | Joffried of Saarbruecken and his wife Sophie put their property in Spiesen in fief to Archbishop Balduin of Trier. | |
1348-1352 | The "Black Death" rages; great plague epidemic. | |
1350 | Joffried transfers his quarter of the patronage of the church of Spiesen to the monastery of Wadgassen in perpetuity. | |
1357 | Joffried sells his part of Spiesen without the knowledge of the feudal lord to Count Walram of Zweibrücken for loo heavy gulden. | |
1366 | Eberhard, Count of Zweibrücken, gives this part of Joffried to the monastery of Wadgassen for his salvation. Only in 1419 does Archbishop Otto of Trier give his feudal consent to this. | |
1377 | Mechthilde von Spiesen (Metza) surrenders herself and her owners in Spiesen to God and the Neumünster Monastery for the salvation of her soul. (Wadgassen now owns 3/4 and Neumünster 1/4 of all goods and rights). | |
1454 | Warrior servants of the "Black Horzog" Ludwig I. of Zweibrücken attack Spiesen, plunder it and drive away all cattle. | |
1500, 1526, 1538 | Jahrgedinge, held at Spiesen under the linden tree. Weistümer and Schöffen at Spiesen. Border inspection or ride. | |
1538 | New construction of a mill in the Spiesen district (Spiesermühle). | |
1549-1573 | Border dispute with Rohrbach on Bottenberg, Eulenbronnen (today's Lindenbrunnen) and Spiesen mill | |
1574-1593 | Count Albrecht of Ottweiler. Introduction of the Reformation. Secularisation of the Neumünster monastery (1576) and confiscation of its goods in Spiesen. Beginning of conflicts with Wadgassen. | |
1586 | Trial of Count Albrecht against Count Palatine Johann, Duke of Zweibrücken before the Imperial Chamber Court in Speyer for raiding and plundering Spiesen by 500 soldiers. | |
1592 | Count Albrecht of Ottweiler abolishes the Catholic parish of Spiesen. | |
1605 | The catholic church in Spiesen is officially closed. | |
1618 | Beginning of the Thirty Years' War | |
1625-1634 | Quartering, tribute, plague, hunger, war | |
1631 | Swedish occupation. Flight of the Wadgassian monks to Trier. Count Wilhelm Ludwig of Ottweiler annexes the Wadgassian possessions in Spiesen. | |
1631 | Spiesen finally in the possession of the Counts of Ottweiler | |
1634 | Beginning of the 150-year border dispute with St. Ingbert | |
1635 | 25 July. Imperial warriors (Croats) plunder and destroy the village and church almost completely. 1 household left in December. | |
1637 | Famine and plague | |
1648 | End of the Thirty Years War | |
1677 | War hordes of Louis XIV of France destroy the first beginnings of a repopulation in Spiesen. Settlers are expelled. | |
1687 | Final start of the resettlement. Wadgassen regains possession of its estates and rights in Spiesen, but loses a lawsuit against Count Friedrich Ludwig of Ottweiler before the Presidential Court in Saarlouis in 1691. | |
1697 | Peace of Rijswijk: France has to give back the "reunited" territories again | |
1705 | The Catholics of Spiesen belong to the parish of St. Ingbert | |
1739 | Border treaty between the Counts of Ottweiler and Prince von den Leyen concerning the border between Spiesen and St. Ingbert | |
1744 | Border regulation between Spiesen and St. Ingbert | |
1771 | Description of border, banns and houses. New survey. | |
1789 | French Revolution | |
1793 | French revolutionary troops march through. Erection of the tree of liberty. Flight of the Prince of Nassau-Saarbrücken. | |
1794 | Fights in and around Spiesen. Victorious advance of Blücher with his hussars, however, the fronts soon shift back again. Saar region French | |
1800 | New building of the catholic church St. Ludwig. 1803 | Parsonage |
1813 | New building of the Spieser mill | |
1815 | Congress of Vienna. Reorganization of the state relations. Spiesen becomes Prussian, henceforth belongs to the newly formed district of Ottweiler and to the mayoralty of Neunkirchen. | |
1821 | By the bull of Pope Pius VII "De salute animarum" Spiesen finally becomes part of the diocese of Trier. | |
1847 | The Heinitz tunnel is hewn. | |
1868 | Formation of a Lutheran parish Elversberg-Spiesen. The unification of the Lutherans and Reformed into a Protestant church had already taken place in 1817. | |
1872 | By cabinet order of King Wilhelm I, a new parish is formed under the name "Elversberg" from equally sized ban parts of the parishes of Neunkirchen and Spiesen. | |
1902 | Construction of the gasworks (gas association Spiesen-Elversberg) | |
1922 | Spiesen and Elversberg leave the mayoral association of Neunkirchen and form their own mayoralty (Amt). | |
1925-1926 | Construction of the Saarbrücken-Spiesen tram line. Electricity supply to the municipality. | |
1927 | Construction of the Neunkirchen - Spiesen tram line. | |
1942 | After its closure, the Friedrichsthal waterworks, with all its boreholes and rights, becomes the property of the Saargruben and is dismantled. | |
1963 | 1 January. The Spiesen-Elversberg office is dissolved. Separation of the two administrations | |
1967 | Heinrich Kohler (CDU) is elected full-time mayor. | |
1969 | Building of the town hall in the centre of Spiesen begins. | |
1974 | 1 January. Due to territorial and administrative reform, the two districts of Spiesen and Elversberg are merged to form the large municipality of Spiesen-Elversberg. | |
1976 | Awarding of the new municipal coat of arms and the municipal colours by the Minister of the Interior. | |
1984 | Friedhelm Pfeifer (CDU) becomes mayor | |
1994 | Karl-Friedrich Kausch (SPD) becomes mayor | |
2004 | First direct election of the mayor. Reiner Pirrung (CDU) is elected mayor with 58.9% of the votes. | |
2019 | Bernd Huf becomes mayor |