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241-603: The municipality lies northeast of Lauterecken at the mouth of its eponymous river, the Odenbach , where it empties into the river Glan in the North Palatine Uplands . Odenbach also lies on Bundesstraße 420. The village lies on both sides of the Glan where the valley floor's elevation is 155 m above sea level . The valleys are squeezed somewhat into a narrow gap by various mountains. Foremost of these on

482-464: A Vogtei seat. By Duke of Palatinate-Zweibrücken Friedrich Ludwig's decree, the house's ownership was transferred to his children from a morganatic marriage . In 1906, the brothers Leo and Emanuel Löb acquired the building, tore it down and in its stead built the house that now stands. An earlier rectory in Odenbach was badly damaged in the harsh winter of 1784-1785 and could no longer be used as

723-466: A Christmas Market. The gymnasium at the primary school serves as a venue for celebratory events and concerts. Odenbach has the following clubs: In bygone days, Odenbach's economy was characterized by the factors covered in the next four sections. Foremost among agricultural endeavours was raising the Glan-Donnersberg breed of cattle . Winegrowing was undertaken on the slopes of

964-469: A Swiss consortium . Likewise in business for a long time was a printing business called Giloi. Further businesses in the northeastern commercial-industrial development on Bundesstraße 420 were the Buhl leatherware factory (which made commercial articles) and the automotive-electric firm Hess/Gabel (Bosch-Dienst). Supermarkets have also located here. Because of its central location in the northern part of

1205-733: A mairie (“mayoralty”) belonging to the Canton of Lauterecken, the Arrondissement of Kaiserslautern and the Department of Mont-Tonnerre (or Donnersberg in German ). After French rule, once Napoleon had been driven out of the country, the Congress of Vienna drew new boundaries yet again. After a transitional time, Odenbach was grouped into the bayerischer Rheinkreis , later known as Rheinpfalz (“Rhenish Palatinate”), an exclave of

1446-549: A 1926 state examination certificate, the sandstone from the mountain ridge between the Odenbach and the Glan was one of Germany's hardest. As such, it was well suited for making millstones , and Odenbach millstones were put to use from the Hunsrück to the Moselle . Duke Alexander of Palatinate-Zweibrücken issued an edict in 1505 requiring his subjects to send their children to school to learn to read and write , but not beyond

1687-738: A Gallic army under the leadership of tribal chieftain Brennus , defeated the Romans at the Battle of the Allia and marched to Rome. The Gauls looted and burned the city, then laid siege to the Capitoline Hill, where some Romans had barricaded themselves, for seven months. The Gauls then agreed to give the Romans peace in exchange for 1000 pounds of gold. According to later legend, the Roman supervising

1928-420: A Protestant church and until a Catholic church was built, it had to be shared by the denominations . This church was torn down in the latter half of the 19th century, and right nearby arose the current Evangelical church in 1865–1866. Work on a new Catholic church began in 1845 and it was ready for use by 1853. The council is made up of 16 council members, who were elected by proportional representation at

2169-644: A Prussian division crossed the border to come and quell the uprising. In 1852, the Catholic church was built, and in 1862 the Protestant church. These replaced the former simultaneous church , which had had to be shared by the denominations. Even during the Austro-Prussian War (1866), there was no fighting in Lauterecken. The only wartime event was a Prussian demand for four horses. In both

2410-406: A Republic. Augustus ( r.  27 BC – AD 14 ) gathered almost all the republican powers under his official title, princeps , and diminished the political influence of the senatorial class by boosting the equestrian class . The senators lost their right to rule certain provinces, like Egypt, since the governor of that province was directly nominated by the emperor. The creation of

2651-560: A banquet for its notable citizens, after which his soldiers killed all the guests. From the security of the temple of Sarapis, he then directed an indiscriminate slaughter of Alexandria's people. In 212, he issued the Edict of Caracalla , giving full Roman citizenship to all free men living in the Empire, with the exception of the dediticii , people who had become subject to Rome through surrender in war, and freed slaves. Mary Beard points to

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2892-432: A boys’ school was established at the old Calvinist school and a girls’ school at the old Lutheran school. The two schools soon outgrew their venues, as can be seen in a report: “In Odenbach are found two schoolhouses, of which the one is assigned for teaching boys and the other for teaching girls. Neither is fit for the requirements, but exceptionally bad is the location of the girls’ school, which contains only one parlour and

3133-631: A court case before the Reichskammergericht , which lasted long after his death. Many books have appeared about Georg Johannes's life, including one published by Paul Kittel in 2003. In 1566, the Duke managed to expand the duchy by adding Electoral Palatinate territories, in particular the County of Lützelstein in Alsace , where he later moved the seat of his residence. The county palatine now bore

3374-438: A dark kitchen. This room serves as both the classroom and the livingroom for the schoolteacher with five children and a maid, and quite often as a kitchen.” The municipality built a roomier schoolhouse in 1828 on Untergasse with two classrooms and the requisite teachers’ dwellings. Since a third teaching post needed to be filled by 1862, the municipality acquired a building on Grabenstraße that, after remodelling, came to be known as

3615-538: A document from 1583 as a landhold of the Offenbach Monastery. According to this record, at the time when the Reformation was introduced, the feudal lords put the estate into Erbbestand (a uniquely German landhold arrangement in which ownership rights and usage rights were separated; this is forbidden by law in modern Germany). The Windhof is actually not a vanished village at all. It now belongs to

3856-484: A donation to one of the Bishops of Verdun. Within this Verdun holding of Medard rose a castle ; a settlement near it came next. It is unknown whether the castle was built on a hill or in a dale (nothing is left of it), but either way, it seems likely that it was built by secular lords, unlawfully. In the early 12th century, it was generally customary to turn the care of relatively unprotected ecclesiastical holdings over to

4097-463: A dozen. The Glanmühle , which was mentioned in a document as early as 1387, and which was the estate mill for Odenbach, Adenbach , Ginsweiler , Cronenberg , Medard , Becherbach, Gangloff and Reiffelbach , was shut down for good after an eventful history in 1938. In 1752, the watermill was built on the Odenbach, and it was shut down for good in 1907. Within Odenbach's limits lie roughly twelve abandoned sandstone quarries . They bear witness to

4338-507: A few years ago, Odenbach held its kermis (church consecration festival, locally known as the Kerb ) on the third Sunday before Saint Bartholomew's Day (24 August, and thus the kermis would have been held in late July or early August), but the municipal council then decided to change this longstanding custom and fix the festival's timing at the third Sunday in August. After the village youth hold

4579-483: A free path to reestablish his own power. In 83 BC he made his second march on Rome and began a time of terror: thousands of nobles, knights and senators were executed. Sulla held two dictatorships and one more consulship, which began the crisis and decline of Roman Republic. In the mid-1st century BC, Roman politics were restless. Political divisions in Rome split into one of two groups, populares (who hoped for

4820-438: A great, representative palatial castle. Soon afterwards, however, in 1544, Ruprecht died, leaving his own underage son and heir, Georg Johannes I of Veldenz-Lauterecken (known as Jerrihans), whose regency was assumed by Duke Wolfgang. Jerrihans became a "mistrustful, most whimsical and withdrawn person who constantly had new plans in his head and plotted his sometimes good thoughts and advantageous designs, which, however, owing to

5061-672: A half century after these events, Carthage was left humiliated and the Republic's focus was now directed towards the Hellenistic kingdoms of Greece and revolts in Hispania . However, Carthage, having paid the war indemnity, felt that its commitments and submission to Rome had ceased, a vision not shared by the Roman Senate . The Third Punic War began when Rome declared war against Carthage in 149 BC. Carthage resisted well at

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5302-415: A home. Thus arose a new one in 1788-1789, on the same spot, a two-storey Classicist building designed by Palatinate-Zweibrücken ’s “countryside and boulevard director” ( Land- und Chausseedirektor ) Gerhard Friedrich Wahl, which is striking for its tight geometric shapes and its simplicity. Also belonging to the house were a barn, a stable, a bakehouse and an open shed whose roof rests on two wooden pillars,

5543-516: A hundred days. These games included gladiatorial combats , horse races and a sensational mock naval battle on the flooded grounds of the Colosseum. Titus died of fever in 81 AD, and was succeeded by his brother Domitian . As emperor, Domitian showed the characteristics of a tyrant . He ruled for fifteen years, during which time he acquired a reputation for self-promotion as a living god. He constructed at least two temples in honour of Jupiter,

5784-628: A large proletariat often of impoverished farmers. The latter groups supported the Catilinarian conspiracy —a resounding failure since the consul Marcus Tullius Cicero quickly arrested and executed the main leaders. Gaius Julius Caesar reconciled the two most powerful men in Rome: Marcus Licinius Crassus , who had financed much of his earlier career, and Crassus' rival, Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus (anglicised as Pompey), to whom he married his daughter . He formed them into

6025-538: A long time to reach the north west coast, and in 60 AD he finally crossed the Menai Strait to the sacred island of Mona ( Anglesey ), the last stronghold of the druids . His soldiers attacked the island and massacred the druids: men, women and children, destroyed the shrine and the sacred groves and threw many of the sacred standing stones into the sea. While Paulinus and his troops were massacring druids in Mona,

6266-467: A man of the cloth, took on, together with Ludwig's widow the regency for the underage Count Palatine and later Duke Wolfgang , who, as thanks to his uncle, later gave him his own county palatine, which at first was made up of the Ämter of Veldenz and Lauterecken. Ruprecht, who at first had taken up residence on the Remigiusberg, raised Lauterecken to residence town and commissioned the building of

6507-710: A military leader to defeat the Cimbri and the Teutones , who were threatening Rome. After Marius's retirement, Rome had a brief peace, during which the Italian socii ("allies" in Latin) requested Roman citizenship and voting rights. The reformist Marcus Livius Drusus supported their legal process but was assassinated, and the socii revolted against the Romans in the Social War . At one point both consuls were killed; Marius

6748-658: A new informal alliance including himself, the First Triumvirate ("three men"). Caesar's daughter died in childbirth in 54 BC, and in 53 BC, Crassus invaded Parthia and was killed in the Battle of Carrhae ; the Triumvirate disintegrated. Caesar conquered Gaul , obtained immense wealth, respect in Rome and the loyalty of battle-hardened legions. He became a threat to Pompey and was loathed by many optimates . Confident that Caesar could be stopped by legal means, Pompey's party tried to strip Caesar of his legions,

6989-633: A once flourishing industry. Foremost among them was the former quarry and stonecutting business on the Kaiserhof. The yellow-veined sandstone from the cadastral area known as “In der Hinterwies” was easy to work and in demand for state buildings, town halls, schoolhouses, business premises and villas. Until 1914, almost 300 men were employed at this quarry. From the other quarries came stone mainly used for making hewn stones for window and door walling and lintels , and also for making stone crocks for sauerkraut , wine press vats and fruit presses . According to

7230-519: A pair of tribunes who attempted to pass land reform legislation that would redistribute the major patrician landholdings among the plebeians. Both brothers were killed and the Senate passed reforms reversing the Gracchi brother's actions. This led to the growing divide of the plebeian groups ( populares ) and equestrian classes ( optimates ). Gaius Marius soon become a leader of the Republic, holding

7471-529: A parade, the focus shifts to the kermis square ( Kerbeplatz ), where the Straußpredigt , a kind of “sermon”, is delivered. This is a rhyming summary of the year's events in the village. On Martinmas (11 November), the Martinsumzug (a parade) is held in late afternoon, and attended by many children, even from outside the village. Around the beginning of Advent , the association of local clubs holds

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7712-538: A period of turbulence. Archaeological evidence implies some degree of large-scale warfare. According to tradition and later writers such as Livy , the Roman Republic was established c.  509 BC , when the last of the seven kings of Rome, Tarquin the Proud , was deposed and a system based on annually elected magistrates and various representative assemblies was established. A constitution set

7953-461: A permanent lack of monies, or of trust of others, could not be carried out." "Georg Hans" did indeed end up in financial trouble, which he sought to overcome, to no avail, with his wife's inheritance, for she was Swedish King Gustav I's daughter. He borrowed monies from the Lords of Mentzingen and from rich townsmen from the city of Strasbourg , which he could never pay back, and he became entangled in

8194-580: A prelude to Caesar's trial, impoverishment, and exile. To avoid this fate, Caesar crossed the Rubicon River and invaded Rome in 49 BC. The Battle of Pharsalus was a brilliant victory for Caesar and in this and other campaigns, he destroyed all of the optimates leaders: Metellus Scipio , Cato the Younger , and Pompey's son, Gnaeus Pompeius . Pompey was murdered in Egypt in 48 BC. Caesar

8435-619: A revolt in Mauretania and the Bar Kokhba revolt in Judea. This was the last large-scale Jewish revolt against the Romans, and was suppressed with massive repercussions in Judea. Hundreds of thousands of Jews were killed. Hadrian renamed the province of Judea " Provincia Syria Palaestina ", after one of Judea's most hated enemies. He constructed fortifications and walls, like the celebrated Hadrian's Wall which separated Roman Britannia and

8676-458: A rich Arabian city. Severus killed his legate, who was gaining respect from the legions; and his soldiers fell victim to famine. After this disastrous campaign, he withdrew. Severus also intended to vanquish the whole of Britannia. To achieve this, he waged war against the Caledonians . After many casualties in the army due to the terrain and the barbarians' ambushes, Severus himself went to

8917-490: A run-down house near the Protestant schoolhouse to convert it into a new schoolhouse that was to house the Catholic school, whose origins stretched back to French King Louis XIV's time. His troops long occupied Lauterecken. The town's efforts, though, brought about no permanent solution. As early as 1874, a communal school was established in Lauterecken, but the space provided for it proved unsatisfactory. Only in 1900

9158-646: A sea voyage to found a new Troy after the Trojan War . They landed on the banks of the Tiber River and a woman travelling with them, Roma, torched their ships to prevent them leaving again. They named the settlement after her. The Roman poet Virgil recounted this legend in his classical epic poem the Aeneid , where the Trojan prince Aeneas is destined to found a new Troy. Literary and archaeological evidence

9399-632: A secular Vogt . It was then that Gerlach I, a scion of the Counts of the Nahegau , who owned little of his own in the way of landholds but held several ecclesiastical Vögteien from the Bishoprics or Archbishoprics of Reims , Mainz and Verdun, founded his own county , which he named after the Verdun landhold of Veldenz on the Moselle . Right from the beginning, a rift opened in these lands between

9640-675: A series of checks and balances , and a separation of powers . The most important magistrates were the two consuls , who together exercised executive authority such as imperium , or military command. The consuls had to work with the Senate , which was initially an advisory council of the ranking nobility, or patricians , but grew in size and power. Other magistrates of the Republic include tribunes , quaestors , aediles , praetors and censors . The magistracies were originally restricted to patricians , but were later opened to common people, or plebeians . Republican voting assemblies included

9881-562: A short time later, in 1903-1904, was double-tracked for strategic reasons throughout the Glan valley. Nevertheless, in 1986, passenger service on the local railway came to an end, with goods service ending, too, a few years later. Running through the village today is Bundesstraße 420. The stretch of the Glan Valley Railway running through Odenbach is out of service. On its tracks, visitors may ride draisines . Serving Lauterecken

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10122-513: A sloped location can be traced back to the mediaeval town fortifications, which stretched up the river Lauter southeastwards from its mouth. This old town centre was crossed by the thoroughfare known as the Obere Gasse ("Upper Lane") with its marketplace , which today, together with its extensions bears the name Hauptstraße ("Main Street") throughout the old town. Behind the marketplace stands

10363-697: A statue of Apollo and the temple of Divus Claudius ("the deified Claudius"), both initiated by Nero. Buildings destroyed by the Great Fire of Rome were rebuilt, and he revitalised the Capitol . Vespasian started the construction of the Flavian Amphitheater, commonly known as the Colosseum . The historians Josephus and Pliny the Elder wrote their works during Vespasian's reign. Vespasian

10604-403: A symbol of its self-assurance at that time, it served in earlier years not only as the administrative centre but also as the hub of village life, with weddings and other occasions being celebrated there. The two-storey building with a gable facing the street was originally equipped with an oriel window . On the ground floor was a hall with a flat ceiling resting on two stone columns. The gable side

10845-546: A system of government called res publica , the inspiration for modern republics such as the United States and France . It achieved impressive technological and architectural feats, such as the empire-wide construction of aqueducts and roads , as well as more grandiose monuments and facilities. Archaeological evidence of settlement around Rome starts to emerge c.  1000 BC . Large-scale organisation appears only c.  800 BC , with

11086-497: A territory of some 780 square kilometres (300 square miles) with a population perhaps as high as 35,000. A palace, the Regia , was constructed c.  625 BC ; the Romans attributed the creation of their first popular organisations and the Senate to the regal period as well. Rome also started to extend its control over its Latin neighbours. While later Roman stories like the Aeneid asserted that all Latins descended from

11327-622: A winged hatchet and two open armrings. Furthermore, there have been finds from the Iron Age or Hallstatt times , and two barrows that have never been explored, and whose origins have not been determined, also lie within town limits in the Jungenwald (forest). The Celts also left a refuge castle on the Marialskopf (mountain) near Medard . In Roman times, the area around the town was rather heavily settled, bearing witness to which are

11568-696: Is Helga Becker. The municipality's arms might be described thus: Vert a bend sinister wavy argent between a bend wavy of the same between two grapevines of the field, and a grapevine of the field. The arms are modelled after the imprint of a court seal used as early as 1490. The bend and the bend sinister (slanted stripes) are meant to illustrate the Odenbach emptying into the Glan . The arms have been borne since 19 October 1853 when they were approved by King Maximilian II of Bavaria . The following are listed buildings or sites in Rhineland-Palatinate ’s Directory of Cultural Monuments: Anyone nearing

11809-621: Is a railway station on the Lauter Valley Railway ( Lautertalbahn ). Lauterecken Lauterecken ( pronunciation ) is a town in the Kusel district in Rhineland-Palatinate , Germany. It is the seat of the Verbandsgemeinde Lauterecken-Wolfstein , to which it also belongs. Lauterecken bears the nickname Veldenzstadt , after the comital family that once held sway here. It

12050-716: Is a way station on the Glan-Blies cycle path. Ancient Rome In modern historiography , ancient Rome is the Roman civilisation from the founding of the Italian city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD. It encompasses the Roman Kingdom (753–509 BC), the Roman Republic (509–27 BC), and the Roman Empire (27 BC–476 AD) until

12291-411: Is also a state-recognized tourism resort town, and in terms of state planning is laid out as a lower centre . The town lies in the North Palatine Uplands in a hollow at the mouth of the Lauter , where it empties into the Glan , and likewise at the mouth of the Grumbach, which also empties into the Glan. Lauterecken lies at an elevation of some 170 m above sea level . Elevations on each side of

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12532-418: Is also to this time that the Counts of Veldenz could trace their history, for the Frankish Bishopric of Veldenz acquired the area around Veldenz on the Moselle from the then Frankish king "for the wine ". The bishops then enfeoffed the Counts of Veldenz with this holding. This brought the estate of St. Medard am Glan with Lauterecken and Odenbach together under the Counts of Veldenz. Just when Lauterecken

12773-404: Is believed to have been built about 1180 and had its first documentary mention in 1303. A 1415 certificate of enfeoffment describes the extent of the castle, the tower, the moat and the bailey. Investigations in the early 1980s yielded the finding that old building work stretched from the tower along the Weiherpfad (path) almost all the way to Hauptstraße (“Main Street”). The castle building itself

13014-448: Is clear on there having been kings in Rome, attested in fragmentary 6th century BC texts. Long after the abolition of the Roman monarchy, a vestigial rex sacrorum was retained to exercise the monarch's former priestly functions. The Romans believed that their monarchy was elective, with seven legendary kings who were largely unrelated by blood. Evidence of Roman expansion is clear in the sixth century BC; by its end, Rome controlled

13255-470: Is drawn from the village's location on the now like-named brook and can presumably be traced back to the pre-Germanic name for the stream, Audina . According to researchers Dolch and Greule, writing in 1990, Odenbach's first documentary mention came in an 841 document that named Uotenbach . Other names that the village has borne over time are, among others, de Odenbahc (893), de Ottenbach (1194) and Odenbach (1222). According to Dolch's and Greule's research,

13496-429: Is last mentioned in the mid 16th century, meaning that it might well have vanished even before the Thirty Years' War . The name is interpreted as having originally been "Bilo’s Estate". Nirthausen was first mentioned in an original document in 1377, and cropped up in another document in 1643. Its name is interpreted as "Nerito’s Estate". The Liebfrauenhof – whose name can be taken to mean "Estate of Our Lady " – appears in

13737-449: Is usually taken by historians as the beginning of Roman Empire. Officially, the government was republican, but Augustus assumed absolute powers. His reform of the government brought about a two-century period colloquially referred to by Romans as the Pax Romana . The Julio-Claudian dynasty was established by Augustus . The emperors of this dynasty were Augustus, Tiberius , Caligula , Claudius and Nero . The Julio-Claudians started

13978-459: Is wooded (municipality's share, 54 ha), 83 ha is settled or used for transport, 8 ha is recreational and 11 ha is open water. Odenbach borders in the north on the town of Meisenheim , in the east on the municipalities of Reiffelbach and Becherbach , in the south on the municipality of Adenbach , in the southwest on the municipality of Cronenberg and in the west on the municipality of Medard . Odenbach's appearance up until

14219-446: The Historia Augusta give many accounts of his notorious extravagance. Elagabalus adopted his cousin Severus Alexander , as Caesar, but subsequently grew jealous and attempted to assassinate him. However, the Praetorian guard preferred Alexander, murdered Elagabalus, dragged his mutilated corpse through the streets of Rome, and threw it into the Tiber. Severus Alexander then succeeded him. Alexander waged war against many foes, including

14460-412: The comitia centuriata (centuriate assembly), which voted on matters of war and peace and elected men to the most important offices, and the comitia tributa (tribal assembly), which elected less important offices. In the 4th century BC, Rome had come under attack by the Gauls , who now extended their power in the Italian peninsula beyond the Po Valley and through Etruria. On 16 July 390 BC,

14701-491: The 1930 Reichstag elections , this had grown to 25.1%. By the time of the 1933 Reichstag elections , after Hitler had already seized power , local support for the Nazis had swollen to 50.3%. Hitler’s success in these elections paved the way for his Enabling Act of 1933 ( Ermächtigungsgesetz ), thus starting the Third Reich in earnest. In the Second World War in the town itself, roughly 60 people were killed in air raids . The Palatinate’s split from Bavaria came about after

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14942-438: The Bishopric of Verdun on the Meuse sometime about the year 600. While the Church of St. Medard was the hub for local missionary efforts, Odenbach was the administrative hub. On 20 May 841, Odenbach itself had its first documentary mention. Out of the lordship's Vogtei grew bit by bit the Gericht (court, or court district) of Odenbach, the same as the territory later known as the Ämter of Odenbach and Lauterecken. After

15183-424: The Congress of Vienna put Lauterecken in the Kingdom of Bavaria , though, did an ordinary school in the modern sense arise. At first it used classrooms set up at the church chaplain's house, although these were soon outgrown by the rising number of pupils. In 1836, therefore, building work began on a Protestant schoolhouse, where sometime after 1837 a schoolteacher and an assistant were soon teaching. The town bought

15424-570: The Etruscan culture, and then became the dominant power in the Mediterranean region and parts of Europe. At its height it controlled the North African coast, Egypt , Southern Europe, and most of Western Europe, the Balkans , Crimea , and much of the Middle East, including Anatolia , Levant , and parts of Mesopotamia and Arabia . That empire was among the largest empires in the ancient world, covering around 5 million square kilometres (1.9 million square miles) in AD 117, with an estimated 50 to 90 million inhabitants, roughly 20% of

15665-438: The Evangelical church , which in its current form dates from 1865–1866, while near the former southeastern town gate, the Obertor ("Upper Gate") stands the Catholic church, which was consecrated in 1853. Further important buildings on Hauptstraße are the former bursary office from 1897 (on the far side of the river Glan, and today a police inspectorate) and the town hall from 1829. Parallel to Hauptstraße, running southwest to

15906-442: The Franco-Prussian War (1871-1872) and the First World War (1914-1918), troops marched through the Glan valley time and again. Changes in territorial arrangements were hardly ever made until after the Second World War. The entity known as the canton lost any meaning in the course of the 19th century. In 1883, the Lautertalbahn ( railway ) was built, and in 1896/1897 came the now abandoned Lauterecken- Staudernheim line. In 1904,

16147-442: The Franks began thrusting into the land, advancing their imperial realm well beyond and westwards into what is now France . After King of the Franks Clovis I had himself baptized in Reims , Christianization was introduced into the Lauterecken area with the creation of missionary centres such as the Hornbach Monastery (founded by Saint Pirmin ), Kusel ’s Remigiusberg Monastery and Disibodenberg near Odernheim am Glan . It

16388-423: The Glan . The earliest report of coal mining in Odenbach came in 1607 with an account of coal being recovered in the “Leckberg” below the “Hohl”. This, however, was not the beginning of coal mining in the local area, for miners had already been mentioned in a 1453 military examination roll. Mined at the coalpits around Odenbach and Roth, galleries in the Blochersberg, Igelsgraben, Pickelwiese, Hagelkreuz and Schinn in

16629-426: The Hochstrooß ( Hohe Straße in Modern High German or “High Road” in English ) that led from Kreuznach to Otterberg , and likewise by another such road from Kreuznach by way of the “Hub” to Baumholder , the so-called Grumbacher Straße . A path through the Hellerwald (forest) linked Odenbach with Otterberg. All of these road links still existed until the 19th century, then losing their traditional importance as

16870-496: The House of Wittelsbach . 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 . This state in turn met its end in 1798 after French Revolutionary troops had occupied

17111-443: The Janusz-Korczack-Schule , were at first taught. In 1999, all the special school ’s classes could be moved into the now free, newer building, which had once housed a few Hauptschule classes. Lauterecken today has one primary school , one special school with a focus on learning (Janusz-Korczak-Schule), a school centre with a Realschule plus and the Veldenz- Gymnasium . Lauterecken likely has its geographical location, where both

17352-598: The Kingdom of Bavaria in 1816 with the rank of Bürgermeisterei (“mayoralty”). In the 1870s, three coal pits were opened and almost 500 miners were employed. In the course of administrative restructuring in Rhineland-Palatinate , the 1,000-year-old administrative entity of Odenbach was dissolved in 1970, and the municipality was grouped into the Verbandsgemeinde of Lauterecken . In 1566, there were 69 families registered at Odenbach, while in 1609 there were 62. In

17593-516: The Kleines Schulhaus – “Little Schoolhouse”. In 1960, all classes were transferred to the new school building in the cadastral area “Auf dem Hubacker”. Today, only the primary school classes are taught there. Odenbach also has one kindergarten . As far back as Celtic times, there must have been a bridleway from Trier going towards Worms by way of Odenbach. The village was linked to the Roman road network by way of Becherbach to

17834-510: The Kusel district . Lauterecken has a "Pro Seniore" home for the elderly, housing both those who can live independently and those in need of assistance or care. The town hall houses a small town library. The end of the Reformation also marked the beginning of schooling, conditioned as it was by the Protestant view that a Christian ought to be able to deal with God ’s Word in the Bible all by himself. Thus, school began in Lauterecken with

18075-550: The Lauter and the Grumbach empty into the Glan , making it favourable to transport, to thank for its founding. Nevertheless, it must be borne in mind that in bygone ages, road traffic tended to avoid the dales and instead run along over the heights. Roads, as the word is commonly understood today, did not come into being until the 19th century. The expansion of the Glan valley road (Glantalstraße) came about sometime about 1840, after

18316-642: The Middle Ages , was swallowed up into the spreading town. Originally, this Stadtteil could only be reached across the Rheingrafenbrücke, but nowadays it can be reached by way of a better street, Schiller ‌straße, and across the Schillerbrücke. Further expansions arose in the town's south end along Lauterstraße, a street that can be considered a southeastward extension of Hauptstraße, and more recently, new developments have taken in

18557-673: The New Stone Age include a hatchet made of black stone found in the Wälderbusch in 1932, a flint arrowhead from Taubhauser Weg, where an adze was also unearthed, a fragment of a stone hatchet and a tool with an asymmetrical tip, both made of flat stone, and a fragment of a quartzite blade from the Schäferberg. Another from the Bronze Age has been a hoard from the Schäferberg near the town limit with Grumbach with

18798-684: The Palatinate-Zweibrücken Judenschultheiß (“reeve of the Jews”) Salomon Meyer acquired a burnt-out spot on Kirchhofstraße where he built a prayer parlour. After Meyer's death, his widow sold the building in 1802 to the Jewish religious community, who used it for worship until 1938, the time of Kristallnacht . In 1989, the Förderverein zur Erhaltung der Synagoge (“Promotional Association for Preserving

19039-704: The Pfälzischer Erbfolgekrieg , or War of the Palatine Succession), the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars , troops of every European nationality marched through the Glan valley, much to the local inhabitants’ chagrin. In 1814, Marshal Blücher headquartered himself in the town. The fountain at the old schoolhouse commemorates this. Lauterecken remained with Electoral Palatinate until

19280-665: The Praetorian Guard and his reforms in the military, creating a standing army with a fixed size of 28 legions, ensured his total control over the army. Compared with the Second Triumvirate's epoch, Augustus' reign as princeps was very peaceful, which led the people and the nobles of Rome to support Augustus, increasing his strength in political affairs. His generals were responsible for the field command, gaining such commanders as Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa , Nero Claudius Drusus and Germanicus much respect from

19521-649: The Roman naming conventions ) tried to align himself with the Caesarian faction. In 43 BC, along with Antony and Marcus Aemilius Lepidus , Caesar's best friend, he legally established the Second Triumvirate . Upon its formation, 130–300 senators were executed, and their property was confiscated, due to their supposed support for the Liberatores . In 42 BC, the Senate deified Caesar as Divus Iulius ; Octavian thus became Divi filius ,

19762-555: The Synagogue ”) acquired the run-down building, now under monumental protection, from private ownership and restored it with the Association's own means and also government funding. Worth seeing are the wall paintings, which are now once more visible. The council is made up of 12 council members, who were elected by majority vote at the municipal election held on 7 June 2009, and the honorary mayor as chairman. Odenbach's mayor

20003-472: The Weiherturm to the northeast, about 200 paces away, remnants of the old village fortifications can still be seen. They were mentioned as long ago as 1377. Roughly one fourth of the old girding wall is preserved. The Rathaus was built in 1570, as can be seen in a letter of complaint written by the then Odenbach pastor and sent by him in 1572 to the village administration. As the municipality's pride and

20244-477: The post office and, of course, the railway station, from which trains run into the Lauter valley towards Kaiserslautern , and which also serves as a station on the former Glantalbahn (railway) now used recreationally by draisine riders. A great new building zone arose after 1945 in the part of town called "Auf Röth" between Bundesstraße 420 and Bundesstraße 270, which leads towards Grumbach . Also built here

20485-807: The "five good emperors" Nerva , Trajan , Hadrian , Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius . Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius were part of Italic families settled in Roman colonies outside of Italy: the families of Trajan and Hadrian had settled in Italica ( Hispania Baetica ), that of Antoninus Pius in Colonia Agusta Nemausensis ( Gallia Narbonensis ), and that of Marcus Aurelius in Colonia Claritas Iulia Ucubi (Hispania Baetica). The Nerva-Antonine dynasty came to an end with Commodus , son of Marcus Aurelius. Nerva abdicated and died in 98 AD, and

20726-464: The 14th century. Older names that the town has borne are iuxtra Luterecke (later edition of Prüm Abbey ’s directory of holdings, the Prümer Urbar ), die burge und dorffe zu Lutrecken (copy from 1343), in die borg zu Lutereckin oder in die stad dar vor (1350) and Luterecken burg vnd stat (1387, first mention in an original document). Neither of those theories, though, explains the origin of

20967-418: The 1970s the one in the rural cadastral area known as “Am Schächerweg”. The loam - an loess -rich Glan valley floor, as well as the heights stretching towards Roth , make for outstanding conditions for agriculture . The mountain slopes on the Glan's left bank and the Odenbach's right – a rural cadastral area known as “Igelsbach” (literally “Hedgehog’s Brook”) – offered the best chances for winegrowing , which

21208-551: The 2001/2002 school year, this school has been offering all-day schooling. It is a vocationally oriented school where finishing the Tenth Class leads to the earning of the Mittlere Reife . At the old 1900 schoolhouse, the primary school can still be found, which has bit by bit also been assigned to teach pupils from nearby villages, too. In a sidebuilding, classes of the school for children with learning difficulties ,

21449-715: The 2nd century BC, the Romans became the dominant people of the Mediterranean Sea . The conquest of the Hellenistic kingdoms brought the Roman and Greek cultures in closer contact and the Roman elite, once rural, became cosmopolitan. At this time Rome was a consolidated empire—in the military view—and had no major enemies. Foreign dominance led to internal strife. Senators became rich at the provinces ' expense; soldiers, who were mostly small-scale farmers, were away from home longer and could not maintain their land; and

21690-634: The Bennerberg, Neuberg and Bornberg, as was fruitgrowing. The much sought-after winter apples , and especially the Glan plums were sent by the wagonload in the months of September and October as far as Hamburg . Trade in cattle, grain and wine was mainly done by the Jews who lived locally. Owing to anti-Semitic legislation and boycotts instigated by the Third Reich , this trade eventually came to an end. Collieries were to be found on both sides of

21931-734: The Bishop of Verdun. It later became the seat of the Barons of Fürstenwächter. The Verdun holding around Medard and Odenbach eventually formed along with those around Baumholder and Wolfersweiler , the Remigiusland and the Amt of Veldenz on the Moselle the County of Veldenz . 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 of

22172-603: The Capitoline and expanding to the Forum Boarium located between the Capitoline and Aventine Hills . The Romans themselves had a founding myth , attributing their city to Romulus and Remus , offspring of Mars and a princess of the mythical city of Alba Longa . The sons, sentenced to death, were rescued by a wolf and returned to restore the Alban king and found a city. After a dispute, Romulus killed Remus and became

22413-544: The Carthaginian intercession, Messana asked Rome to expel the Carthaginians. Rome entered this war because Syracuse and Messana were too close to the newly conquered Greek cities of Southern Italy and Carthage was now able to make an offensive through Roman territory; along with this, Rome could extend its domain over Sicily . Carthage was a maritime power, and the Roman lack of ships and naval experience made

22654-456: 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

22895-458: The Duchy converted to Reformed belief, Palatinate-Veldenz did not embrace this newer faith and kept its people with Lutheranism. Nevertheless, in the time of the occupation by French King Louis XIV's troops and in the time of Electoral Palatinate rule that followed, a strong reversion to Catholic belief set in. In 1690, there was once again a Catholic community. Soon, roughly one third of all

23136-482: The Eastern part of the Roman territories. However, Marius's partisans managed his installation to the military command, defying Sulla and the Senate . To consolidate his own power, Sulla conducted a surprising and illegal action: he marched to Rome with his legions, killing all those who showed support to Marius's cause. In the following year, 87 BC, Marius, who had fled at Sulla's march, returned to Rome while Sulla

23377-413: The Empire in 165–180 AD. From Nerva to Marcus Aurelius, the empire achieved an unprecedented status. The powerful influence of laws and manners had gradually cemented the union of the provinces. All the citizens enjoyed and abused the advantages of wealth. The image of a free constitution was preserved with decent reverence. The Roman senate appeared to possess the sovereign authority, and devolved on

23618-569: The Flavian period was the siege and destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD by Titus . The destruction of the city was the culmination of the Roman campaign in Judea following the Jewish uprising of 66 AD. The Second Temple was completely demolished, after which Titus' soldiers proclaimed him imperator in honour of the victory. Jerusalem was sacked and much of the population killed or dispersed. Josephus claims that 1,100,000 people were killed during

23859-542: The Frankish Imperial partitions in 843 and in 870 , the Bishopric of Verdun found that it was somewhat less than straightforward to hold onto East Frankish holdings. Upon the accession of Bishop of Verdun Albert I of Marcey in 1156, Frederick I, Holy Roman Emperor , guaranteed Verdun's rights. To strengthen the claim to the lordship, a moated castle was built on the gore of land at the Odenbach's mouth in

24100-685: The French had withdrawn from the German lands on the Rhine ’s left bank in 1814, the French departments were soon dissolved and the victorious powers imposed yet a new regional order. The Congress of Vienna annexed the Palatinate to the Kingdom of Bavaria . This brought the unwelcome presence of a border running along the river Glan between Bavaria and, eventually, after a cession , Prussia . Beginning at Niedereisenbach ( Glanbrücken ) and going downstream,

24341-434: The German lands on the Rhine ’s left bank. Odenbach had already become the seat of a Schultheiß by 1387. Duke Johann I freed the villagers of Odenbach and a few of the outlying villages from serfdom in 1579. In 1596, they were also granted market rights. In 1798, French Revolutionary troops annexed the land. Administratively, Odenbach formed together with Adenbach , Ginsweiler , Reiffelbach and Schmittweiler

24582-446: The Glan Valley Railway ceased operations about 1985. Nonetheless, it has since grown into a tourist attraction , for between Altenglan and Staudernheim , visitors can now ply the route themselves on a pedal-powered draisine . The Lauter Valley Railway links the town with the upper centre of Kaiserslautern . Lauterecken lies roughly at the halfway point between the two termini and has its own stop on this line. For cyclists, Lauterecken

24823-761: The Glan and Lauter Area"), founded in the 19th century and shut down in 1937, and the Nordwestpfälzische Zeitung ("Northwest Palatine Newspaper"; 1900-1938). The newspaper was taken over by the Allgemeine Zeitung , which still appears as a regional offshoot of a major newspaper in Meisenheim . A further widespread daily newspaper is the Rheinpfalz, Westricher Rundschau appearing in Ludwigshafen and Kusel . Major events on

25064-519: The Glan now marked the boundary between the "Baierischer Rheinkreis" – a new exclave of the Kingdom of Bavaria created by the Congress of Vienna – and the Principality of Lichtenberg , whose capital was Sankt Wendel , and which was an exclave of the Duchy of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld , which as of 1826 became the Duchy of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha . As part of this state, it passed by sale in 1834 to

25305-702: The Glan's left bank are the Bennerberg (308 m) and the Bornberg with its outliers stretching towards Meisenheim , while on the right bank are the Galgenberg (326 m above sea level) and the Hagelkreuz (357 m). Furthermore, in the gore formed by the Glan and Odenbach is the plateau of the Hellerwald and the Streit. The municipal area measures 800 ha, of which 465 ha is farmed, 233 ha

25546-590: The Glan, coming down from Altenglan , near the middle of town. Here at these forks arose the town of Lauterecken, which was once called Lautereck. Within what are now Lauterecken's town limits once lay two villages named Bilstein and Nirthausen, and also an estate called the Liebfrauenhof. For a time, another estate called the Windhof (despite the name, not a wind farm ) also belonged to Lauterecken. Bilstein first crops up in an original document from 1304, and

25787-616: The Italian Alps , causing panic among Rome's Italian allies. The best way found to defeat Hannibal's purpose of causing the Italians to abandon Rome was to delay the Carthaginians with a guerrilla war of attrition, a strategy propounded by Quintus Fabius Maximus Verrucosus . Hannibal's invasion lasted over 16 years, ravaging Italy, but ultimately Carthage was defeated in the decisive Battle of Zama in October 202 BC. More than

26028-622: The Kingdom of Prussia . Under this new order, Lauterecken lay within this Rheinkreis beginning in 1816 and was given functions as the seat of a Bürgermeisterei ("mayoralty") and a canton. The canton was assigned to the Landcommissariat (today Landkreis or district) of Kusel. The town played a special rôle in the 1849 Badish -Palatine uprising. At the Lauterecken Revolutionary People's Association,

26269-538: The Lauter, is Schlossgasse ("Palace Lane"), formerly known as Untere Gasse ("Lower Lane"), which leads from the Veldenzturm (" Veldenz Tower") along the former town wall to the historic Rheingrafenbrücke ("Rhinegrave’s Bridge"). The beginning of this street also marks the former palace area, which stretched on down to Hauptstraße. One important street, which branches off Hauptstraße near the Evangelical church in

26510-474: The Mediterranean, Italy maintained a special status which made it domina provinciarum ("ruler of the provinces"), and – especially in relation to the first centuries of imperial stability – rectrix mundi ("governor of the world") and omnium terrarum parens ("parent of all lands"). The Flavians were the second dynasty to rule Rome. By 68 AD, the year of Nero's death, there

26751-529: The Protestants’ favour as ethnic Germans driven out of Germany's former eastern territories came to town looking for a new place to live. Adherents of Islam nowadays also live in town, and many inhabitants adhere to no religion at all. For a long time, near what is today the Stadtkirche ("Town Church"), once stood a forerunner building about which nothing is known for sure. It was replaced in 1725 by

26992-648: The Second World War. In 1949, the Textilwerk Lauterecken sprang up between the Glan and Bundesstraße 420 as a branch plant of the Vogtland woollen mill in Hof an der Saale . Employed here for a time in three spinning mills and one cotton weaving mill were 1,500 workers. As a result of shrinking economic activity in the textile sector, the firm shut the Lauterecken branch plant down. After

27233-470: The Senate, they were severely restricted in political power. The Senate squabbled perpetually, repeatedly blocked important land reforms and refused to give the equestrian class a larger say in the government. Violent gangs of the urban unemployed, controlled by rival Senators, intimidated the electorate through violence. The situation came to a head in the late 2nd century BC under the Gracchi brothers,

27474-476: The age of 13 (in early-16th-century German : “ …zu schulen thun laßen lern schreiben und leßen, aber nit über XIII jare des schulers alters… ”). The earliest verifiable school intendant was mentioned in 1566. Shortly thereafter, the municipality built a school building on Kirchhofstraße, which was used until 1828. About 1710, the Lutheran community also hired its own teacher. The teacher taught classes at first at

27715-573: The aid of Pyrrhus of Epirus in 281 BC, but this effort failed as well. The Romans secured their conquests by founding Roman colonies in strategic areas, thereby establishing stable control over the region. In the 3rd century BC Rome faced a new and formidable opponent: Carthage , the other major power in the Western Mediterranean. The First Punic War began in 264 BC, when the city of Messana asked for Carthage's help in their conflicts with Hiero II of Syracuse . After

27956-618: The architect Apollodorus of Damascus . He remodelled the Pantheon and extended the Circus Maximus . When Parthia appointed a king for Armenia without consulting Rome, Trajan declared war on Parthia and deposed the king of Armenia. In 115 he took the Northern Mesopotamian cities of Nisibis and Batnae , organised a province of Mesopotamia (116), and issued coins that claimed Armenia and Mesopotamia were under

28197-400: The area between Lauterstraße and the road that leads to Cronenberg . In the north end, off Hauptstraße, Herrenstraße ("Lord’s Street") and Schulstraße ("School Street") were built. Standing on the latter are the former Amt courthouse and, of course, the old schoolhouse, which nowadays houses the elementary school. Likewise in this part of Lauterecken, somewhat off to the side of this street,

28438-477: The arts and sciences, and bestowed honours and financial rewards upon the teachers of rhetoric and philosophy . On becoming emperor, Antoninus made few initial changes, leaving intact as far as possible the arrangements instituted by his predecessor. Antoninus expanded Roman Britannia by invading what is now southern Scotland and building the Antonine Wall . He also continued Hadrian's policy of humanising

28679-549: The authority of the Roman people. In that same year, he captured Seleucia and the Parthian capital Ctesiphon (near modern Baghdad ). After defeating a Parthian revolt and a Jewish revolt , he withdrew due to health issues, and in 117, he died of edema . Trajan's successor Hadrian withdrew all the troops stationed in Parthia, Armenia and Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq ), abandoning Trajan's conquests. Hadrian's army crushed

28920-408: The building had long stood empty, it was taken over by the BITO (Bittmann GmbH Lagertechnik) logistics firm whose main location was in Meisenheim . A major factory that did various kinds of printing was the firm Lony, originally located in town near the former Lower Gate, later moving to the commercial-industrial development on Bundesstraße 420 going towards Medard , and later being taken over by

29161-603: The centuries for Lauterecken, with some figures broken down by religious denomination: About the roots of the name Lauterecken, there has been disagreement among the locally based regional historians. The two sides can be roughly broken down as follows: The former, which relates the name ending to the town's geographical location, has thus far been held to be the right one and it was even supported by earlier placename researchers and compilers of town descriptions (Widder, Pöhlmann, Christmann and nowadays Karl Pfleger). Quite recently, researcher Martin Dolch has had slight doubts about

29402-537: The changes to the calendar promoted by Caesar , and the month of August is named after him. Augustus brought a peaceful and thriving era to Rome, known as Pax Augusta or Pax Romana . Augustus died in 14 AD, but the empire's glory continued after his era. The Julio-Claudians continued to rule Rome after Augustus' death and remained in power until the death of Nero in 68 AD. Influenced by his wife, Livia Drusilla , Augustus appointed her son from another marriage, Tiberius , as his heir. The Senate agreed with

29643-418: The character Aeneas , a common culture is attested to archaeologically. Attested to reciprocal rights of marriage and citizenship between Latin cities—the Jus Latii —along with shared religious festivals, further indicate a shared culture. By the end of the 6th century, most of this area had become dominated by the Romans. By the end of the sixth century, Rome and many of its Italian neighbours entered

29884-409: The city's sole founder. The area of his initial settlement on the Palatine Hill was later known as Roma Quadrata ("Square Rome"). The story dates at least to the third century BC, and the later Roman antiquarian Marcus Terentius Varro placed the city's foundation to 753 BC. Another legend, recorded by Greek historian Dionysius of Halicarnassus , says that Prince Aeneas led a group of Trojans on

30125-401: The county. None of Leopold Ludwig's sons could claim the succession. Gustav Philipp, the eldest, was, for reasons that are no longer clear today, held prisoner in a tower at the palace in Lauterecken, and in 1679, while fleeing custody, he was shot dead in the Wälderbusch (a wilderness area) near the town. Two other sons fell in the war. Leopold Ludwig himself died in 1694. The "orphaned" county

30366-412: The dales mostly reach some 300 m above sea level, with the highest elevation being found at the peak known as die Platt (322 m above sea level). Lauterecken is found roughly 20 km northeast of Kusel , and 25 km northwest of Kaiserslautern . The municipal area measures 893 ha, of which 307 ha is wooded. Lauterecken borders in the northeast on the municipality of Medard , in

30607-785: The death of Tiberius, and, with belated support from the senators, proclaimed his uncle Claudius as the new emperor. Claudius was not as authoritarian as Tiberius and Caligula. Claudius conquered Lycia and Thrace ; his most important deed was the beginning of the conquest of Britannia . Claudius was poisoned by his wife, Agrippina the Younger in 54 AD. His heir was Nero , son of Agrippina and her former husband, since Claudius' son Britannicus had not reached manhood upon his father's death. Nero sent his general, Suetonius Paulinus , to invade modern-day Wales , where he encountered stiff resistance. The Celts there were independent, tough, resistant to tax collectors, and fought Paulinus as he battled his way across from east to west. It took him

30848-406: The destruction of republican values, but on the other hand, they boosted Rome's status as the central power in the Mediterranean region. While Caligula and Nero are usually remembered in popular culture as dysfunctional emperors, Augustus and Claudius are remembered as successful in politics and the military. This dynasty instituted imperial tradition in Rome and frustrated any attempt to reestablish

31089-462: The district, Lauterecken is home to three medium-size businesses and various shops. One business of national standing is the fruit juice producer Niehoffs-Vaihinger, a plant of the Cellpack Group (food packaging), which since 2003 has belonged to the industrial concern Behr Bircher Cellpack BBC (no relation to the British Broadcasting Corporation ). Part of the town's heating energy comes from an environmentally friendly high-performance heat pump from

31330-438: The early 19th century was characterized by its girding wall with two gates, the Obertor (Upper Gate) and the Untertor (Lower Gate), and three defensive towers. In the village core, the mediaeval street network has remained largely preserved. With only a few exceptions, most of the village's buildings were destroyed in the great fire of 1733. The village wall was razed in 1828, and only a few bits of it remain today. Thereafter,

31571-463: The east on the municipality of Cronenberg , in the southeast on the municipality of Hohenöllen , in the south on the municipality of Lohnweiler , in the southwest on the municipality of Wiesweiler , in the west on the municipalities of Hausweiler and Grumbach and in the northwest on the municipality of Kappeln and an exclave belonging to the municipality of Grumbach. Yearly precipitation in Lauterecken amounts to 707 mm, which falls into

31812-433: The edict as a fundamental turning point, after which Rome was "effectively a new state masquerading under an old name". Macrinus conspired to have Caracalla assassinated by one of his soldiers during a pilgrimage to the Temple of the Moon in Carrhae, in 217 AD. Macrinus assumed power, but soon removed himself from Rome to the east and Antioch. His brief reign ended in 218, when the youngster Bassianus, high priest of

32053-401: The emperors all the executive powers of government. Gibbon declared the rule of these "Five Good Emperors" the golden era of the Empire. During this time, Rome reached its greatest territorial extent. Commodus , son of Marcus Aurelius, became emperor after his father's death. He is not counted as one of the Five Good Emperors, due to his direct kinship with the latter emperor; in addition, he

32294-462: The end of the Triumvirate, Antony was living in Ptolemaic Egypt , ruled by his lover, Cleopatra VII . Antony's affair with Cleopatra was seen as an act of treason, since she was queen of another country. Additionally, Antony adopted a lifestyle considered too extravagant and Hellenistic for a Roman statesman. Following Antony's Donations of Alexandria , which gave to Cleopatra the title of " Queen of Kings ", and to Antony's and Cleopatra's children

32535-412: The establishment of a Sunday school at which the faithful were to practise singing hymns and be quizzed in Catechism . Soon afterwards came the first attempts to establish schooling for all children. A schoolhouse stood near the Lower Gate. These early efforts to set up a system of education fell by the wayside in the course of the Thirty Years' War . Long after that war there were no such efforts, for

32776-460: The estate of St. Medard, which is independent of Verdun Cathedral "). The Counts held sway in four consecutive lines: The last named is taken to be the actual "Lauterecken comital line", which characterized the town with the building of two castles, whose appearance is preserved in Matthäus Merian's engraving from about 1650. Thus, from 1543 to 1694, Lauterecken was the residence town of the sideline of Palatinate-Veldenz-Lauterecken. In 1689, however,

33017-430: The extensive archaeological finds in Medard and Lohnweiler , for instance. Within Lauterecken's own limits in the late 19th century, a farmer discovered a Gallo-Roman villa rustica . As well, a Roman gravestone was once incorporated into a house wall in the town. Roman roads have been found on the heights around Lauterecken. After the Romans, who had occupied the area for more than three centuries, had withdrawn,

33258-433: The fall of the western empire. Ancient Rome began as an Italic settlement, traditionally dated to 753 BC, beside the River Tiber in the Italian Peninsula . The settlement grew into the city and polity of Rome, and came to control its neighbours through a combination of treaties and military strength. It eventually controlled the Italian Peninsula, assimilating the Greek culture of southern Italy ( Magna Grecia ) and

33499-492: The field. However, he became ill and died in 211 AD, at the age of 65. Upon the death of Severus, his sons Caracalla and Geta were made emperors. Caracalla had his brother, a youth, assassinated in his mother's arms, and may have murdered 20,000 of Geta's followers. Like his father, Caracalla was warlike. He continued Severus' policy and gained respect from the legions. Knowing that the citizens of Alexandria disliked him and were denigrating his character, Caracalla served

33740-419: The firm in Freital named Thermea. It draws heat from the river Lauter, whose water has a yearly average temperature of 10 °C. Only in freezing temperatures does the alternative, a condensing boiler , spring into action. Lauterecken is the seat of the like-named Verbandsgemeinde , and also hosts its administration. Moreover, a branch of the Bundesagentur für Arbeit is located here, one of three in

33981-436: The first graves in the Esquiline Hill 's necropolis, along with a clay and timber wall on the bottom of the Palatine Hill dating to the middle of the 8th century BC. Starting from c.  650 BC , the Romans started to drain the valley between the Capitoline and Palatine Hills, where today sits the Roman Forum . By the sixth century BC, the Romans were constructing the Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus on

34222-465: The first of his seven consulships (an unprecedented number) in 107 BC by arguing that his former patron Quintus Caecilius Metellus Numidicus was not able to defeat and capture the Numidian king Jugurtha . Marius then started his military reform: in his recruitment to fight Jugurtha, he levied the very poor (an innovation), and many landless men entered the army. Marius was elected for five consecutive consulships from 104 to 100 BC, as Rome needed

34463-457: The first persecutor of Christians and for the Great Fire of Rome , rumoured to have been started by the emperor himself. A conspiracy against Nero in 65 AD under Calpurnius Piso failed, but in 68 AD the armies under Julius Vindex in Gaul and Servius Sulpicius Galba in modern-day Spain revolted. Deserted by the Praetorian Guards and condemned to death by the senate, Nero killed himself. As Roman provinces were being established throughout

34704-413: The first strike but could not withstand the attack of Scipio Aemilianus , who entirely destroyed the city, enslaved all the citizens and gained control of that region, which became the province of Africa . All these wars resulted in Rome's first overseas conquests (Sicily, Hispania and Africa) and the rise of Rome as a significant imperial power. After defeating the Macedonian and Seleucid Empires in

34945-421: The following clubs are active in Lauterecken: * BSW ( Stiftung Bahn-Sozialwerk ) is a social assistance agency run by railwaymen for railwaymen and their families. It goes without saying that in days of yore in this former residence town, not only was agriculture , along with winegrowing , well developed, but also service and handicraft businesses had set up shop, too. At first, the most important service

35186-405: The former Palatine-Veldenz Amt of Lauterecken was permanently given the status of an Electoral Palatinate Oberamt , after it had already been occupied by Electoral Palatinate troops in 1697 anyway. In 1744, the Electoral Palatinate administration had Lauterecken's town wall torn down. Throughout this time, however, there was little in the way of peace. In the Nine Years' War (known in Germany as

35427-417: The frontier legions to save them. The legions of three frontier provinces— Britannia , Pannonia Superior , and Syria —resented being excluded from the " donative " and replied by declaring their individual generals to be emperor. Lucius Septimius Severus Geta, the Pannonian commander, bribed the opposing forces, pardoned the Praetorian Guards and installed himself as emperor. He and his successors governed with

35668-461: The gravely endangered Lower Gate and two others at corners in the defensive wall (these two can be seen in the Merian engraving). Any attempt by historians to describe a castle integrated into the town fortifications at this early time has come up against considerable difficulties. There can, however, be no doubt that there was a castle complex either within the town or nearby that served a mainly defensive purpose rather than that of simply representing

35909-683: The hitherto small region the Ämter of Nerzweiler, Reichenbach and Bosenbach. Belonging to this new Amt were the following places: Albersbach , Aschbach , Bettenhausen , Bosenbach , Eßweiler , Föckelberg , Fockenberg , Gimsbach , Hinzweiler , Hundheim , Jettenbach , Kollweiler , Lauterecken, Limbach , Lohnweiler , Matzenbach , Miesenbach , Mühlbach , Nerzweiler , Neunkirchen am Potzberg , Niedersteegen , Niederstaufenbach , Obermohr , Oberstaufenbach , Obersteegen , Oberweiler im Tal , Reichenbach, Reichenbachstegen , Rothselberg , Rutsweiler am Glan , Schrollbach , Theißberg , Wiesweiler and other places that now no longer exist. In 1444,

36150-403: The house across the street from the town hall, the Erkerhaus (“Oriel Window House”), in the half-oval lintel is the keystone from the former gateway arch showing the still preserved coat of arms once borne by the Lords of Fürstenwärther, holders of the castle at Odenbach, with two Palatine lions facing each other. The old building was built in the first fourth of the 16th century and served as

36391-410: The imperial dignity. Pertinax, a member of the senate who had been one of Marcus Aurelius's right-hand men, was the choice of Laetus, and he ruled vigorously and judiciously. Laetus soon became jealous and instigated Pertinax's murder by the Praetorian Guard, who then auctioned the empire to the highest bidder, Didius Julianus, for 25,000 sesterces per man. The people of Rome were appalled and appealed to

36632-433: The increased reliance on foreign slaves and the growth of latifundia reduced the availability of paid work. Income from war booty, mercantilism in the new provinces, and tax farming created new economic opportunities for the wealthy, forming a new class of merchants, called the equestrians . The lex Claudia forbade members of the Senate from engaging in commerce, so while the equestrians could theoretically join

36873-402: The inhabitants adopted Roman culture. The State Museum in Speyer keeps a bronze statuette of Minerva found in Adenbach and another of Mercury found in Odenbach. During the Migration Period , between about AD 375 to 550, the Medard -Odenbach area must have been a refuge. After the Franks had finished taking the land, a Merovingian prince donated the lordship over St. Medard to

37114-619: The inhabitants were farmers, each with a plot of between 5 and 20 ha, while another third worked in trades. The remaining third of the population was made up of both people in learned professions and day labourers. Today, only 12 commercial concerns can still be found in the village, mainly family businesses and small businesses. Most Odenbach inhabitants in the workforce work elsewhere. As for farms, only two now remain. The following table shows population development since early Bavarian times for Odenbach, with some figures broken down by religious denomination: The oldest name known for Odenbach

37355-468: The late 19th century, the Tressel tannery switched to making shoes , although no major shoe factory grew out of it. In Zweibrücken , documents mentioned a lordly brewery in the town and small schnapps distilleries , which obviously went out of business during French Revolutionary or Napoleonic times. Alongside the lordly brewery stood several small breweries and a small schnapps distillery, none of which could stand up to competition . A major brewery

37596-632: The latter case, they were broken down as follows: one innkeeper, twelve craftsmen, fourteen farmers, eleven winegrowers, five day labourers, two herdsmen and two gatekeepers. The events of the Thirty Years' War led to considerable loss of life and property. In 1656 (eight years after the war ended), only 23 families were left in Odenbach. On the occasion of the 1719 census , it was noted that there were 344 souls (some 76 families), of whom 30 were Catholic , 243 were Reformed and 71 were Lutheran . There were also four Jewish families. A huge demographic shift came about somewhat more than 120 years later that saw

37837-430: The latter half of the 18th century through measures instituted by the insightful Duke Christian IV of Palatinate-Zweibrücken , particularly the measures involving growing potatoes and mangelwurzels , storage space also had to be found for this produce. In the village itself, hardly a house with a cellar was to be found. The only way out of this dearth of storage room was to dig these mountain cellars. The clayey marl on

38078-418: The laws. He died in 161 AD. Marcus Aurelius , known as the Philosopher, was the last of the Five Good Emperors . He was a stoic philosopher and wrote the Meditations . He defeated barbarian tribes in the Marcomannic Wars as well as the Parthian Empire . His co-emperor, Lucius Verus , died in 169 AD, probably from the Antonine Plague , a pandemic that killed nearly five million people through

38319-578: The legions' support. The changes on coinage and military expenditures were the root of the financial crisis that marked the Crisis of the Third Century . Severus was enthroned after invading Rome and having Didius Julianus killed. Severus attempted to revive totalitarianism and, addressing the Roman people and Senate, praised the severity and cruelty of Marius and Sulla, which worried the senators. When Parthia invaded Roman territory, Severus successfully waged war against that country. Notwithstanding this military success, Severus failed in invading Hatra ,

38560-458: The local lords. In 1384, it was said that the work on the original town fortifications was completed. At the so-called brotherly partition in 1387, Count Friedrich of Veldenz received the town of Lauterecken with its castle and Burgmannen along with a few outlying villages, while Medard passed as a village in the Amt of Odenbach to Count Heinrich. In 1393, Count Friedrich III founded an actual Amt of Lauterecken, which he expanded by adding to

38801-481: The middle third of the precipitation chart for all Germany. Only at 41% of the German Weather Service's weather stations are lower figures recorded. The driest month is April. The most rainfall comes in June. In that month, precipitation is 1.4 times what it is in April. Precipitation varies only slightly and is spread very evenly over the year. At none of the weather stations are lower seasonal swings recorded. The very dense settlement in Lauterecken's inner town in

39042-462: The modern Verbandsgemeinde administration building was built sometime after 1970. Farther on towards the mountain, stretching in a thoroughly loose pattern, is a major housing development . To the north, Hauptstraße meets Saarbrücker Straße beyond the Glan and the railway line. Also known as Bundesstraße 420, this is a busy highway. Before Hauptstraße meets this road, though, Bahnhofstraße (" Railway Station Street") branches off northeastwards to

39283-422: The municipal election held on 7 June 2009, and the honorary mayor as chairman. The municipal election held on 7 June 2009 yielded the following results: "FWG" is a voters’ group. Lauterecken's mayor is Isabel Steinhauer-Theis. The town's arms might be described thus: Argent a lion passant azure armed and langued gules upon a triangle reversed voided inside which a triangle voided, its angles conjoined with

39524-410: The name Veldenz-Lützelstein. During French King Louis XIV's wars of conquest, the county ended up in great distress. Since Lauterecken was, strictly speaking, still a Bishopric of Verdun landhold, the Chambers of Reunion demanded its reunification with France. Leopold Ludwig , the last Count Palatine of Veldenz-Lützelstein, opposed this demand and until the French occupation was over, had to leave

39765-407: The name is made up of the syllable —bach ( German for “brook”), as with many other places in the region, to which is prefixed what was originally a personal name, either “Odo” or “Otto”, possibly the village's founder. In Prüm Abbey ’s 893 directory of holdings, the Prümer Urbar , a church in Odenbach was mentioned for the first time, one consecrated to Saint Peter . It is one of the oldest in

40006-449: The name, noting that where the Glan meets the Lauter, it does not form an Ecke (the last element in the town's name, and also German for "corner"), that is to say, a wedge-shaped point of land (for a well known German example of one of these, see Deutsches Eck ). Those who propound the latter theory point to the hill castles that bear names ending in —eck (Schlosseck, Sponeck, etc.). The name itself does not crop up in documents before

40247-412: The neighbouring municipality of Grumbach . During the Middle Ages , the townsfolk belonged to the unified Catholic faith and long belonged to the Church of Medard. In the time of the Reformation , on orders from the Dukes of Zweibrücken and following the principle of cuius regio, eius religio , everyone in the town had to convert to Lutheran belief. When towards the end of the 16th century

40488-414: The old Bürgermeistereien were dissolved. In 1972, Lauterecken became, after many authorities, such as the office of weights and measures, the financial office, the local court and the customs office had been withdrawn from the town, the seat of a Verbandsgemeinde administration within the Kusel district with all together 25 Ortsgemeinden . The following table shows population development over

40729-457: The old town towards the eastern slope, is Bergstraße ("Mountain Street"). Still preserved on the lands of the former graveyard on the Igelskopf ("Hedgehog’s Head" – a mountain) is the imposing warriors’ memorial. A new graveyard was laid out in the town's northeast. As early as the late 18th century, Lauterecken was growing beyond the area within the fortifications. In the southwest, the centre of Überlauterecken, already an independent municipality by

40970-468: The original ecclesiastical landholders and the counts, who were striving to hold the lands as their own. The bishops’ power steadily ebbed, although it theoretically remained in place until the old lordly structures were swept away in the time of the French Revolution . In 1157, Lauterecken had its first documentary mention as Tiefburg dem von der Domkirche Verdun abhängigen Hofe St. Medard kirchlich zugehörig ("lowland castle belonging ecclesiastically to

41211-460: The parish became Lutheran , and in 1588, Reformed . In the last fourth of the 18th century, however, a number of Catholics and Lutherans migrated to the village, forming both a Catholic and a Lutheran parish, both of which sought a simultaneum . Any disagreements over church use were settled by the applicable sections of the Treaty of Ryswick (30 October 1697), but differences between Lutherans and Calvinists did not come to an end until 1818, when

41452-418: The path to the victory a long and difficult one for the Roman Republic . Despite this, after more than 20 years of war, Rome defeated Carthage and a peace treaty was signed. Among the reasons for the Second Punic War was the subsequent war reparations Carthage acquiesced to at the end of the First Punic War. The war began with the audacious invasion of Hispania by Hannibal , who marched through Hispania to

41693-592: The populace and the legions. Augustus intended to extend the Roman Empire to the whole known world, and in his reign, Rome conquered Cantabria , Aquitania , Raetia , Dalmatia , Illyricum and Pannonia . Under Augustus' reign, Roman literature grew steadily in what is known as the Golden Age of Latin Literature . Poets like Virgil , Horace , Ovid and Rufus developed a rich literature, and were close friends of Augustus. Along with Maecenas , he sponsored patriotic poems, such as Virgil's epic Aeneid and historiographical works like those of Livy . Augustus continued

41934-404: The prefix Lauter— ; however, another source deals with that by saying that the town is named after the little river, the Lauter, which rises at the northern edge of the Palatinate Forest southeast of Kaiserslautern and flows 35 km down to Lauterecken, where its water – which according to the name was once lauter (meaning "clean", although the word is now obsolete in this sense) – flows into

42175-400: The regal titles to the newly conquered Eastern territories, war between Octavian and Antony broke out . Octavian annihilated Egyptian forces in the Battle of Actium in 31 BC. Antony and Cleopatra committed suicide . Now Egypt was conquered by the Roman Empire. In 27 BC and at the age of 36, Octavian was the sole Roman leader. In that year, he took the name Augustus . That event

42416-474: The region was politically thoroughly restructured in the course of the French Revolution . In the newly established administrative entities that arose after the dissolution of the old feudal structure, Lauterecken lay in the Department of Mont-Tonnerre (or Donnersberg in German ) and the Arrondissement of Kaiserslautern, while the town itself became the seat of both a canton and a mairie ("mayoralty") bearing its name. Also belonging to this mairie were

42657-496: The revitalised Persia and also the Germanic peoples , who invaded Gaul. His losses generated dissatisfaction among his soldiers, and some of them murdered him during his Germanic campaign in 235 AD. A disastrous scenario emerged after the death of Alexander Severus : the Roman state was plagued by civil wars, external invasions , political chaos, pandemics and economic depression . The old Roman values had fallen, and Mithraism and Christianity had begun to spread through

42898-513: The rise of the Celts . From the early Iron Age ( Hallstatt times , about 800-500 BC) comes the burying ground that was unearthed on the Galgenberg. Furthermore, digging work in 1934 at the “Hellerwald” sporting ground brought to light another burying ground, this one from the later Iron Age ( La Tène times , about 500 BC to AD 1), which long lay on a homestead in the cadastral area known as “Im hintern Spitzwasen”, whose foundation remnants are known. Finds of ancient coins show that there

43139-426: The road network was expanded in the 19th century, Lauterecken was also linked to the railway network. In 1883, the Lauter Valley Railway ( Lautertalbahn ) came into service, as did the double-tracked Glan Valley Railway ( Glantalbahn ) through the Glan valley going towards Odernheim am Glan in 1894 and between 1902 and 1904 also the railway towards Altenglan . While the Lautertalbahn still runs regularly today,

43380-612: The road through the Lauter valley towards Wolfstein and Kaiserslautern had been built a few years earlier. About 1850, the road into the Nahe valley by way of Grumbach was built, replacing an old road over the heights coming from Idar-Oberstein . Today, Lauterecken lies at the junction of Bundesstraßen 420 ( Oppenheim — Neunkirchen, Saarland ) and 270 (Idar-Oberstein—Kaiserslautern— Pirmasens ). Distances to other places are as follows: Kusel 22 km, Meisenheim 6 km, Wolfstein 8 km, Kaiserslautern 32 km, Bad Kreuznach 42 km, Idar-Oberstein 31 km. Soon after

43621-446: The same century, although its buildings were torn down in the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648) by Spanish occupiers . By the mid 19th century, most of what was left had fallen into ruin. One remnant still stands today, however, the ruin of a tower known as the Weiherturm . Remnants of other old buildings, too, still bear witness to the village's centuries-long history. The castle belonged to the St. Medard estate, which itself belonged to

43862-461: The schoolhouse lay in ruins. Count Palatine Leopold Ludwig , though, was said to be a great promoter of education. After he had already decreed a school order in 1695 in Hanau-Lichtenberg, he did much the same for the town and Amt of Lauterecken, which in 1706 was laid down as the Lauterecker Schulordnung . A general school, independent of the Church, was introduced by the French in French Revolutionary times with their Primärschule . Only after

44103-435: The schoolhouse on Schulstraße. Only the lower Hauptschule classes were taught at first in Lauterecken in a new building. The upper classes were taught in the new school building in Offenbach-Hundheim . In 1996, a new school building was built at the school centre "Auf Röth" (this name is a prepositional expression, a common practice in Germany) for all Hauptschule students from the whole Verbandsgemeinde of Lauterecken . Since

44344-416: The shutdown, a company that manufactured fruit juices called Schloss Veldenz located on the mill lands. The Rheingrafenmühle originally belonged to the Counts of Grumbach, who had been granted leave to use the more favourable water conditions in Lauterecken for a lordly mill. This mill ground its last in 1957. The wool weavers owned a walking mill on the Lauter, which was mentioned as early as 1542. In

44585-439: The sides of the other, both of the third. The lion appearing in Lauterecken's current arms is drawn from arms once borne by the House of Wittelsbach . Lauterecken has had other arms. The arms shown in the Coffee Hag albums about 1925 are sable a triangle reversed voided argent, that is, a black shield bearing only one charge , a silver, hollow triangle standing on one point. Very similar arms were apparently borne in 1841, but

44826-566: The siege, of whom a majority were Jewish. 97,000 were captured and enslaved , including Simon bar Giora and John of Giscala . Many fled to areas around the Mediterranean. Vespasian was a general under Claudius and Nero and fought as a commander in the First Jewish-Roman War . Following the turmoil of the Year of the Four Emperors , in 69 AD, four emperors were enthroned in turn: Galba , Otho , Vitellius , and, lastly, Vespasian, who crushed Vitellius' forces and became emperor. He reconstructed many buildings which were uncompleted, like

45067-403: The slope of the forest path was best suited to this task. Skilled miners, many of whom were available in the village at the time, set to work digging many cellars. One peculiarity that these cellars can claim is their ownership history. Nowhere is it written down who owned each one, neither in any register nor in any cadastral survey. Ownership was simply assumed and acknowledged informally. Until

45308-438: The son of the deified. In the same year, Octavian and Antony defeated both Caesar's assassins and the leaders of the Liberatores , Marcus Junius Brutus and Gaius Cassius Longinus , in the Battle of Philippi . The Second Triumvirate was marked by the proscriptions of many senators and equites : after a revolt led by Antony's brother Lucius Antonius , more than 300 senators and equites involved were executed, although Lucius

45549-415: The strategic railway line from Lauterecken to Altenglan was built. Ten years later, troop transport trains were running on the line towards France, while hospital and prisoner trains ran in the other direction. It was similar in the Second World War . Seventy men from Lauterecken did not return from the fighting in the First World War , and in the Second, 167 either fell or went missing in action . Moreover,

45790-461: The succession, and granted to Tiberius the same titles and honours once granted to Augustus: the title of princeps and Pater patriae , and the Civic Crown . However, Tiberius was not an enthusiast for political affairs: after agreement with the Senate, he retired to Capri in 26 AD, and left control of the city of Rome in the hands of the praetorian prefect Sejanus (until 31 AD) and Macro (from 31 to 37 AD). Tiberius died (or

46031-429: The support of the people) and optimates (the "best", who wanted to maintain exclusive aristocratic control). Sulla overthrew all populist leaders and his constitutional reforms removed powers (such as those of the tribune of the plebs ) that had supported populist approaches. Meanwhile, social and economic stresses continued to build; Rome had become a metropolis with a super-rich aristocracy, debt-ridden aspirants, and

46272-429: The supreme deity in Roman religion . He was murdered following a plot within his own household. Following Domitian's murder, the Senate rapidly appointed Nerva as Emperor. Nerva had noble ancestry, and he had served as an advisor to Nero and the Flavians. His rule restored many of the traditional liberties of Rome's upper classes, which Domitian had over-ridden. The Nerva–Antonine dynasty from 96 AD to 192 AD included

46513-399: The temple of the Sun at Emesa, and supposedly illegitimate son of Caracalla, was declared Emperor by the disaffected soldiers of Macrinus. He adopted the name of Antoninus but history has named him after his Sun god Elagabalus , represented on Earth in the form of a large black stone. An incompetent and lascivious ruler, Elagabalus offended all but his favourites. Cassius Dio , Herodian and

46754-441: The time that followed arose a gristmill -oilmill, a sawmill and a bark mill , all of which makes it clear that weaving mills and tanneries also did business in town. Guild letters still exist from the wool and linen weavers, and also the tailors and cloth shearers, likewise from the 16th century. Several tanneries in Lauterecken are mentioned beginning in the 18th century, and certainly were in town some time before that. In

46995-452: The town and castles were destroyed. When Count Gerlach I founded the original County of Veldenz, Lauterecken had evidently outstripped the neighbouring village of Medard. Even before 1350 (likely in 1349), Lauterecken had been raised to town. In the latter half of the 14th century, the fortifications sprang up with three gates (Untertor or "Lower Gate", Bergtor or "Mountain Gate", Obertor or "Upper Gate") and five towers, of which three stood near

47236-478: The town clerk Franz König took over the chairmanship and demanded that the town supply 70 Rhenish guilders ’ worth of gunpowder and lead , which at first the town refused to do, but then later, after an assembly of the townsmen, it approved the demand. The freedom movement was stronger here than in almost any other place in the Landcommissariat . The extensive money collections and troop recruiting, however, came to naught, for on 13 June 1849, coming from Grumbach ,

47477-423: The town itself lost 56 women, old men and children in bombing raids. Three memorials, one at Veldenzplatz, one on the Igelskopf ("Hedgehog’s Head" – a mountain) and one at the new graveyard remind visitors to keep the peace. In the late 1920s and early 1930s, the Nazi Party (NSDAP) became quite popular in Lauterecken. In the 1928 Reichstag elections , 16.5% of the local votes went to Adolf Hitler ’s party, but by

47718-469: The town of Zweibrücken : the County Palatine Zweibrücken – later a Duchy. Once Count Palatine Ludwig II introduced the Reformation into the Duchy of Palatinate Zweibrücken , Lauterecken townsfolk, too, had to convert to Lutheran beliefs. Ludwig II's death from the effects of overindulgence in drink in 1532 at the age of 30 steered the town and Amt of Lauterecken onto a whole new historical course. Ludwig's brother Ruprecht , who had once been

47959-502: The town's calendar are the Spring Market ( Frühjahrsmarkt ) on the first weekend in May, the great Folk Festival ( Heimatfest ) on the second weekend in August, the Autumn Market ( Herbstmarkt ) on the second weekend in October, the Christmas Market ( Weihnachtsmarkt ) on the first weekend in December and the Tower Festival ( Turmfest ), although this last event is held only every other year. Any special old customs that may once have been observed in Lauterecken are now unknown. As of 2005,

48200-429: The townsfolk belonged to the Catholic faith, and the other two thirds were Protestant . The Reformed faith according to John Calvin ’s teachings never did play any important rôle, even before the 1818 Protestant Union, although they did for a while have a prayer house at their disposal. There were also only a few Jews in town. The ratio of Catholics to Protestants shifted in the wake of the Second World War markedly in

48441-495: The triangle was gules (red). Lauterecken fosters partnerships with the following places: There are regular school exchanges and citizen visits between Lauterecken and Sombernon, along with friendships between various clubs and families. The Sombernon Stone, placed on the Roseninsel (island), reminds everyone of this contribution to peace in Europe . The following are listed buildings or sites in Rhineland-Palatinate ’s Directory of Cultural Monuments: The town's cultural life

48682-413: The tribes of modern-day East Anglia staged a revolt led by queen Boadicea of the Iceni . The rebels sacked and burned Camulodunum , Londinium and Verulamium (modern-day Colchester , London and St Albans respectively) before they were crushed by Paulinus . Boadicea, like Cleopatra before her, committed suicide to avoid the disgrace of being paraded in triumph in Rome. Nero is widely known as

48923-438: The tribes of modern-day Scotland. Hadrian promoted culture, especially the Greek. He forbade torture and humanised the laws. His many building projects included aqueducts, baths, libraries and theatres; additionally, he travelled nearly every province in the Empire to review military and infrastructural conditions. Following Hadrian's death in 138 AD, his successor Antoninus Pius built temples, theatres, and mausoleums, promoted

49164-419: The two denominations united to form the Palatine State Church. Since 1970, the Evangelical parish of Odenbach (Odenbach, Adenbach , Ginsweiler ) has been united with the parish of Gangloff ( Gangloff, Roth, Becherbach , Reiffelbach ). Several local clergymen have earned regional acclaim (see Famous people below). For a while, the Jewish share of the population was quite big. After the great fire of 1733,

49405-429: The upper grades) came to Lauterecken, and in the years that followed, it became a full Gymnasium. In the 1968/1969 school year, it moved to a new building. In 1954, the textile mill began work as an offshoot of the company Vogtländische Spinnerei Hof. More businesses were brought to town, so that today, Lauterecken boasts more than 1,000 jobs. In the course of administrative restructuring in Rhineland-Palatinate in 1968,

49646-443: The valley roads were extended. Work began on the roadbed for the Odenbach valley road in 1835 from Schneckenhausen , ending in Odenbach ten years later. The local linking road to Roth and Reiffelbach got a new roadbed in 1885. In 1938, on military grounds, the Nazis expanded the road now known as Bundesstraße 420. In 1896, the Glan Valley Railway ( Glantalbahn ) from Lauterecken to Staudernheim came into service, and only

49887-433: The village hall until a suitable building was acquired on Kirchhofstraße. In Duke Gustav Samuel's time (1718-1731), the Catholic community, too, hired its own teacher. Since the municipality had a small population, the means to run such a school system any longer could not be raised. After a short time, classes ended. After the 1818 Protestant Union, which saw the Lutherans and the Calvinists unite into one denomination,

50128-425: The village of Odenbach on Bundesstraße 420 catches sight of a ruined tower on the village’s southern edge, in the gore formed by the Odenbach where it empties into the Glan . These remnants of the Weiherturm (“Pond Tower”) are all that is left of a 12th-century moated castle , Burg Odenbach, which is said to be the municipality's defining landmark. This lowland castle was once a Bishopric of Verdun holding,

50369-441: The village spread out in the course of the 19th century beyond the former village moat along the newly built Grabenstraße (“Moat Street”), Adenbacher Straße and Glanstraße. After the Second World War , the municipality opened three new residential areas, beginning in 1953 the one in the rural cadastral areas known as “Im Schofel” and “In Kohlenstein”, a few years later the one in the rural cadastral area known as “In Burghöhl” and in

50610-412: The village's population rise threefold. In 1843, 1,079 souls were counted, of whom 110 were Jewish. Besides the odd swing, either up or down, this population level has remained steady until the present day. This level was held steady only by the outflow of people, both to German cities and industrial centres and overseas, mainly to the United States . Until the Second World War ended, roughly one third of

50851-439: The villages of Cronenberg , Heinzenhausen , Hohenöllen and Lohnweiler , while the other mairies in the canton were those of Becherbach, Hundheim and Odenbach. The boundary between the Departments of Mont-Tonnerre and Sarre ran through the Lauterecken area along the river Glan . Places that stood mostly on the river's right bank belonged to Mont-Tonnerre, while those standing mostly on the left bank belonged to Sarre. After

51092-449: The war through the new territorial order imposed in the French zone of occupation , and it was merged into the new state of Rhineland-Palatinate , formed in 1946 by French General Marie-Pierre Kœnig , and Lauterecken was grouped into the Regierungsbezirk of Pfalz ("Palatinate"), whose seat was at Neustadt an der Weinstraße . The town then experienced an enormous upswing. In 1954, "Progymnasium" (that is, Gymnasium that does not have

51333-415: The weighing noticed that the Gauls were using false scales. The Romans then took up arms and defeated the Gauls. Their victorious general Camillus remarked "With iron, not with gold, Rome buys her freedom." The Romans gradually subdued the other peoples on the Italian peninsula, including the Etruscans . The last threat to Roman hegemony in Italy came when Tarentum , a major Greek colony, enlisted

51574-505: The whole Glan valley. In 1683, the chapel fell to the pickaxe after falling into disrepair. On the same spot arose the Late Baroque hall church in 1763-1764. The churchtower was built in three steps: the ground floor was built in the 13th century, the second level in 1508, and the third in 1666 along with its three eight-sided cupolae, built one on top of the other. It is believed that the Prüm proprietary church lost its independence under Archbishop of Mainz Adalbert II (1138-1141) and

51815-495: The whole built in a square shape so that a closed yard was formed within. In the early 1960s, the district savings bank ( Kreissparkasse ) of Kusel acquired the property and set up commercial premises on the ground floor, which were festively dedicated and opened to the public on 1 December 1965. Somewhat outside the village, beyond the Odenbach, lying on the left side of a farm lane leading to Cronenberg , are some 40 mountain cellars. When agriculture underwent profound changes in

52056-604: The world's population at the time. The Roman state evolved from an elective monarchy to a classical republic and then to an increasingly autocratic military dictatorship during the Empire. Ancient Rome is often grouped into classical antiquity together with ancient Greece , and their similar cultures and societies are known as the Greco-Roman world . Ancient Roman civilisation has contributed to modern language, religion, society, technology, law, politics, government, warfare, art, literature, architecture, and engineering. Rome professionalised and expanded its military and created

52297-478: The years from 1821 to 1880 were all together 583 154 t of coal . A report about the coal yield from the Carlsgrube colliery, which lay in the rural cadastral area called “In Dämm” and was run privately from 1788 to 1865, is unavailable. The above-named state-run operations – owned by the Bavarian state – were shut down in 1885. When the commercial register was first started on 1 January 1908, there were 92 registered businesses. Now, there are only just over

52538-467: Was Josephus' sponsor and Pliny dedicated his Naturalis Historia to Titus, son of Vespasian. Vespasian sent legions to defend the eastern frontier in Cappadocia , extended the occupation in Britannia (modern-day England, Wales and southern Scotland ) and reformed the tax system. He died in 79 AD. Titus became emperor in 79. He finished the Flavian Amphitheater, using war spoils from the First Jewish-Roman War, and hosted victory games that lasted for

52779-470: Was a new school centre with a primary school , a Hauptschule and a Gymnasium . Commercial-industrial operations in Lauterecken are concentrated mainly in the town's north end on Bundesstraße 420. Already in prehistoric times , mankind was making its presence felt in the lands around what is now the town of Lauterecken as long ago as 5000 BC, leaving its traces in the form of extensive archaeological finds. Artefacts unearthed locally that come from

53020-417: Was appointed to command the army together with Lucius Julius Caesar and Lucius Cornelius Sulla . By the end of the Social War, Marius and Sulla were the premier military men in Rome and their partisans were in conflict, both sides jostling for power. In 88 BC, Sulla was elected for his first consulship and his first assignment was to defeat Mithridates VI of Pontus , whose intentions were to conquer

53261-433: Was built on a plot that was later to be expanded into a school centre. Under the regional new order, about 1970, there suddenly arose within a small area three Hauptschulen in Sankt Julian , Offenbach and Lauterecken, which bit by bit were drawn together. In Lauterecken, with steadily growing numbers of students and school centralization, additions kept having to be built to house new classrooms. Temporary wings appeared at

53502-453: Was campaigning in Greece. He seized power along with the consul Lucius Cornelius Cinna and killed the other consul, Gnaeus Octavius , achieving his seventh consulship. Marius and Cinna revenged their partisans by conducting a massacre. Marius died in 86 BC, due to age and poor health, just a few months after seizing power. Cinna exercised absolute power until his death in 84 BC. After returning from his Eastern campaigns, Sulla had

53743-410: Was fitted with two gables, each with a side façade with a chamfered round arch. Late Baroque wooden doors were removed during conversion work in 1950. The upper floor was formerly adorned with Renaissance windows, only two of which are still preserved. During conversion work in the late 18th century, the tracery windows were replaced with oval windows and the oriel window was removed. To be seen at

53984-413: Was founded is something that cannot be determined with any certainty today. Assuming that the town sprang up alongside a castle , it might have been founded about the year 1000. Older than Lauterecken and of particular importance in the Early Middle Ages was the neighbouring village of Medard , which was held by the Bishopric of Verdun , and which apparently was given by King Childebert II about 580 as

54225-613: Was given up after the Second World War . Hard stone was quarried in the area known as Ingenhell beginning in the 19th century. For a time, more than 200 workers were employed there. On ropeway conveyors , the stone was brought to the dale. After 1970, the hard stone quarry was shut down. Building and removal businesses, which were to a great extent bound to the stone quarrying industry, are nevertheless still in business now. Besides sandstone and hard stone, limestone and coal were also mined within Lauterecken's limits in earlier times. Manufacturing operations of any great size only arose after

54466-432: Was killed) in 37 AD. The male line of the Julio-Claudians was limited to Tiberius' nephew Claudius , his grandson Tiberius Gemellus and his grand-nephew Caligula . As Gemellus was still a child, Caligula was chosen to rule the empire. He was a popular leader in the first half of his reign, but became a crude and insane tyrant in his years controlling government. The Praetorian Guard murdered Caligula four years after

54707-424: Was mentioned as early as 893. By the late 19th century, vineyards took up some 10% of the area within Odenbach's limits. As a result of the changes to agricultural structure, winegrowing came to an end in the 1960s. The woodlands, which still make up roughly one third of the municipal area, served the local farmers before the First World War as a further support for their endeavours. Foremost among its boons to them

54948-469: Was militarily passive. Cassius Dio identifies his reign as the beginning of Roman decadence : "(Rome has transformed) from a kingdom of gold to one of iron and rust." Commodus was killed by a conspiracy involving Quintus Aemilius Laetus and his wife Marcia in late 192 AD. The following year is known as the Year of the Five Emperors , during which Helvius Pertinax , Didius Julianus , Pescennius Niger , Clodius Albinus and Septimius Severus held

55189-570: Was no chance of a return to the Roman Republic , and so a new emperor had to arise. After the turmoil in the Year of the Four Emperors , Titus Flavius Vespasianus (anglicised as Vespasian) took control of the empire and established a new dynasty. Under the Flavians, Rome continued its expansion, and the state remained secure. Under Trajan, the Roman Empire reached the peak of its territorial expansion. Rome's dominion now spanned 5.0 million square kilometres (1.9 million square miles). The most significant military campaign undertaken during

55430-475: Was now actually supposed to pass back to the Counts of Palatine Zweibrücken , and indeed, Zweibrücken did at first take over the provisional administration. However, a years-long dispute arose with Electoral Palatinate , which likewise claimed the right of succession in Palatinate-Veldenz. The dispute was settled in 1733 with the Veldenz Succession Treaty of Mannheim , under whose terms the Ämter of Veldenz and Lauterecken passed wholly to Electoral Palatinate, and

55671-504: Was now pre-eminent over Rome: in five years he held four consulships, two ordinary dictatorships, and two special dictatorships, one for perpetuity. He was murdered in 44 BC, on the Ides of March by the Liberatores . Caesar's assassination caused political and social turmoil in Rome; the city was ruled by his friend and colleague, Marcus Antonius . Soon afterward, Octavius , whom Caesar adopted through his will, arrived in Rome. Octavian (historians regard Octavius as Octavian due to

55912-485: Was of course firewood for private use, but it was also useful for tanbark harvesting, and it yielded the wood that was needed for building and woodworking . The shift to other energy sources, however, has led to a relative loss of importance for the woodlands. The earliest traces of settlement in and around Odenbach go back to the New Stone Age . Archaeological finds from the Bronze Age that followed, however, have been rather sparse, but they become richer again with

56153-445: Was once borne by the school, and then later by the folk high school and the corresponding clubs. There is also a company for training and continuing training. In earlier centuries, Lauterecken was also said to be a publishing centre for various newspapers . There were the Boten für das Lauter- und Glantal with the enclosure Blätter für Geschichte und Heimatkunde für die Glan- und Lautergegend ("Pages for History and Local Studies for

56394-444: Was placed under Mainz ecclesiastical jurisdiction by reason of Verdun's proprietary church rights and the Frankish Imperial partitions in the 9th century. Both Medard ’s and Odenbach’s churches thereby passed into the ownership of the monastery at Disibodenberg . Under Archbishop Gerlach of Mainz (1353-1371), the Church of Odenbach got its independence back on 15 June 1367, and has held onto it without interruption ever since. In 1548,

56635-403: Was ruined by Spanish occupiers in 1620-1623 in such a way that it became no longer fit to be a dwelling. In the winter of 1850-1851, what was left of the complex fell down. In 1683, French “ scorched earth ” occupiers had tried to blow a hole in the tower, but as the charge was greater than what was needed for that, great chunks fell off the tower, leaving it in a collapsed state. Right near

56876-453: Was spared. The Triumvirate divided the Empire among the triumvirs: Lepidus was given charge of Africa , Antony, the eastern provinces, and Octavian remained in Italia and controlled Hispania and Gaul . The Second Triumvirate expired in 38 BC but was renewed for five more years. However, the relationship between Octavian and Antony had deteriorated, and Lepidus was forced to retire in 36 BC after betraying Octavian in Sicily . By

57117-482: Was succeeded by the general Trajan . Trajan is credited with the restoration of traditional privileges and rights of commoner and senatorial classes, which later Roman historians claim to have been eroded during Domitian's autocracy. Trajan fought three Dacian wars , winning territories roughly equivalent to modern-day Romania and Moldova . He undertook an ambitious public building program in Rome, including Trajan's Forum , Trajan's Market and Trajan's Column , with

57358-404: Was the Felsenbrauerei , which was founded in 1860 and has since gone out of business. Since 2000, the railway station building has housed a small but very popular "inn brewery" ( Gasthausbrauerei ). In the 19th century, the sandstone industry earned major importance. Sandstone from Lauterecken were shipped for building magnificent buildings in big cities. Owing to shrinking demand, this industry

57599-417: Was the mills . As early as 1387, a mill in "Inghelden" is recorded. It likely stood on the brook that empties into the Glan northeast of Lauterecken. The Stadtmühle ("Town Mill") on the Glan and the Rheingrafenmühle ("Rhinegrave’s Mill") on the Lauter had their first documentary mentions in the 16th century. Belonging for a while to the Town Mill, which shut down for good in 1966, was an oilmill . After

57840-433: Was uninterrupted settlement here in the transitional period between Celtic and Roman times. Indeed, Roman roads once ran along the heights to the Roßberg and the Ebernburg either side of the Glan . Unearthed during clearing work in the cadastral area known as “Im Neuberg” was one of the most important troves: some 150 gold coins attributed to the East Celtic tribe of the Leuker . After Julius Caesar conquered Gaul ,

58081-455: Was work begun on a new schoolhouse that had room for all schoolchildren, and that also proved to be a model for the town with its architecture and location. After the Second World War , the arrangements changed. In the new building zone "Auf Röth", the state of Rhineland-Palatinate brought the Staatliches Gymnasium into service in 1969. The new building in the Stadtteil "Auf Röth", above Bundesstraße 420 going towards Wiesweiler ,

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