Duchroth

Duchroth lies 240 m above sea level in the Rheingrafenstein local recreation area, south of the Hunsrück, between the spa town of Bad Kreuznach and the gemstone town of Idar-Oberstein, not far from neighbouring Odernheim am Glan, where the Glan empties into the Nahe.

Clockwise from the north, Duchroth's neighbours are the municipality of Waldböckelheim, the municipality of Schloßböckelheim, the municipality of Oberhausen an der Nahe, the municipality of Hallgarten, the town of Obermoschel, the municipality of Lettweiler, the municipality of Odernheim am Glan, the municipality of Staudernheim and the municipality of Boos. All lie in the Bad Kreuznach district but Obermoschel, which lies in the neighbouring Donnersbergkreis.

Also belonging to Duchroth are the outlying homesteads of Dimrotherhof, Hof Schönblick and Montforterhof.[2]

Yearly precipitation in Duchroth amounts to 633 mm, which is rather low, falling into the lowest third of the precipitation chart for all Germany. Only at 27% of the German Weather Service's weather stations are even lower figures recorded. The driest month is February. The most rainfall comes in June. In that month, precipitation is 1.7 times what it is in February. Precipitation varies hardly at all throughout the year. At only 15% of the weather stations are lower seasonal swings recorded.

Duchroth's population development since Napoleonic times is shown in the table below. The figures for the years from 1871 to 1987 are drawn from census data:[5]

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.[7]

Duchroth's mayor is Manfred Porr, and his deputies are Günther Deiler and Eduard Beck.[8]

Duchroth's arms have only one charge, namely Saint Nicholas, on a gold field. He is the village's patron saint.

The following are listed buildings or sites in Rhineland-Palatinate’s Directory of Cultural Monuments:[9]

Montforterhof monumental zone – main building

Kirchenstraße – Evangelical parish church

The “Biet” (former fire and laundry pond)

• Village core, Naheweinstraße 29–37 and others (monumental zone) – contiguous historical village arrangement with two-floor buildings, among them a few timber-frame houses, 16th to 20th centuries
• Evangelical parish church, Kirchenstraße – Gothicized sandstone-block building, Heimatstil, 1908–1910, architect Karl Schenkel, Munich-Pasing; warriors’ memorial 1866/1870/1871, lion, last fourth of the 19th century; warriors’ memorial 1914/1918, sandstone-block, 1920s (see also below)
• At Kirchenstraße 4 – spolia, about 1600
• Naheweinstraße 22 – Baroque timber-frame house, 18th century
• Naheweinstraße 29 – “Haus Schumacher”; post-Baroque building with half-hip roof, partly timber-frame, gateways, marked 1802 and 1790 (1796?)
• Naheweinstraße 31 – Einfirsthaus (house with single roof ridge) of a farmstead, partly timber-frame, essentially possibly from the 17th century, marked 1846, gateway beam marked 1801, other gate facility from the late 18th or early 19th century
• Naheweinstraße 33 – Late Gothic town hall; third fourth of the 16th century, conversion on the side towards the street, 19th century (see also below)
• Naheweinstraße 35 – estate complex, building with half-hip roof with timber-frame additions, gateway arch marked 1802
• Naheweinstraße 37 – Baroque timber-frame house, partly solid, 18th century; house door marked 1846
• Naheweinstraße 40/42 – “Haus Lindemann”; Late Baroque complex with single roof ridge, marked 1786, barn, partly timber-frame, marked 1786
• Naheweinstraße 46 – Baroque timber-frame house, to a great extent plastered, 18th century, ground floor made over in Classicist style
• Naheweinstraße 70 – winery, four-sided estate; quarrystone buildings, Heimatstil, about 1910
• Naheweinstraße 72 – former school; house, Classicist plastered building with seven-part ribbon windows, mid 19th century
• Obere Wassergasse 14 – small house, partly timber-frame, earlier half of the 19th century
• At Pfarrgasse 6 – house door, Classicist, marked 1863
• At Pfarrgasse 7 – house door, door leaf, mid 19th century
• Pfarrgasse 8 – Evangelical rectory; villalike building with hip roof, Heimatstil, about 1900
• At Schlossstraße 1 – house door, Late Classicist, 1864
• At Schlossstraße 4 – two pieces of spolia, about 1600 (?)
• Untere Wassergasse 16 – former complex with single roof ridge; earlier half of the 19th century
• Untere Wassergasse 10, 12, 14, 16 (monumental zone) – four complexes with single roof ridge from the 19th century forming an estatelike arrangement at the end of a cul-de-sac.
• Wassergasse 12 – house door, marked 1815
• At Weinbergstraße 2 – Classicist skylight portal, marked 1835
• Montforterhof (monumental zone) – essentially presumably “new Schloss in the dale” of the family Boos von Waldeck, as of 1480 (Renaissance spolia, 16th to early 18th centuries), 16th to 19th centuries; now four farmsteads; main building (no. 3/5): building with half-hip roof with gateway arch, essentially possibly from the 18th and early 19th centuries

Village street, town hall, church

There are about 800 parishioners all together, counting those from both Duchroth and neighbouring Oberhausen an der Nahe. Duchroth's old church burnt right down in the great fire that struck the village in 1905, making a new one necessary. This was built between 1908 and 1910 to plans by Munich architect Karl Schenkel, and on 4 September 1910, it was consecrated. The 30 m-tall belltower and the onion-vaulted roof make it visible across a great distance. One peculiarity is the clock mechanism, which has to be wound up by hand every day. Slightly older than the church itself is the rectory, built in 1906, standing across the street from the church. Built out of sandstone, it affords its occupants comfortable coolth in the summer months. In the winter, however, its high ceilings (3.25 m) can make it necessary for them to don one or more extra layers of clothing. Also falling victim to the blaze in 1905 were the old parish hall and the parish barn. A new parish hall (without a barn) has only in recent years been built. This can comfortably accommodate 80 to 100 people. Church community groups meet here.[10]

The town hall (Rathaus) is surely one of Duchroth's oldest buildings. It is believed to have been built in the 16th century, although there are no documents establishing this. Undertaken in 1982, at a cost of some €225,000, was a thorough renovation led by the Didion architectural agency. On the strength of the structural survey by the architects, the time of building was reckoned to be the 11th or 12th century, not the 16th. This is likelier, since the town hall was built in the Gothic style. According to Didion, the building comes from the oldest time of the Gothic period. All buildings in the area built in the Gothic style that still stand today are made of quarrystone and slate material. The back and gables are in typical Gothic style and well preserved. Regrettably, the windows on the street side have been enlarged and the Gothic façade no longer appears in its original form. On the righthand gable side is found a round-arched window. It is richly moulded and the keystone bears an image of a mask hewn into the stone. The column with the top beam, which is still standing near the entrance, suggests that there was once a great space, opened to the outside here. Once sitting on the roof was a ridge turret that held one of the Palatinate's most interesting bells. The bell's shape alone suggests that it was very old, likewise the puzzling inscription upon the rim: “+ O A S O +”, likely standing for OMNIA AD SALVTEM OMNIVM, meaning “Everything to everyone’s Salvation”. The bell is believed to have come from Disibodenberg Abbey, whose six bells were shared out after Secularization to villages that had in bygone times been subject to the old abbey. The bell measured 68 cm across and was made of prime cast iron. Akin in shape was a bell from Aachen, which was cast in 1261. In 1894, the bell was fetched down from the ridge turret and sold for a few Pfennig, because it had cracked. The turret itself was torn down after the Second World War because it had fallen into disrepair. In its long, eventful history, the Rathaus has served not only for meetings and consultations of the municipal representatives and the clubs, but also as a prison (windows with iron grilles), a prison camp, a courthouse, a schoolhouse, a dwelling, a shelter in case of war, a storehouse, a garage for the hearse (in a leanto shed) and a communal bakehouse.[11]

From time to time in the Middle Ages, the Knights of Montfort drew their subjects in Duchroth into their disputes with other nobles. In the 1335 feud with St. Stephen's Collegiate Foundation in Mainz, for example, the villagers were armed and led into battle as a militant cohort. The Montforts, for their part, assumed a duty to protect their subjects, by giving the village Pfortenrecht (“gate rights”), whereby the villagers were allowed to build two fortified gates and to gird their village with a moat and an abatis. Even the churchyard was fortified with a mighty wall and incorporated into the defensive complex. Also belonging to this was a hefty stone defensive tower, actually the churchtower, with arrowslits, which the municipality built. This tower even withstood the pickaxe after the great fire in 1905 and had to be demolished with explosives. The mediaeval village court was always anxious to keep the fence around the village gapless. The defensive system herein described likely proved its worth during the “Duchroth War” in 1418, for Duke Stephan of Zweibrücken, in the agreement of atonement, reserved to himself the right to avail himself of the two villages of Duchroth and Oberhausen along with their churchyards in case of feud. The moat that the villagers dug around their village defined its shape as a clump village. The only ways into the village then were the two gates, the Untertor (Lower Gate) and the Obertor (Upper Gate). The former stood where the Ringpfad (“ring path”) now crosses Naheweinstraße. Except for the village thoroughfare, then known as the Große Gasse (“Great Lane”), running from one village gate to the other, all village streets were dead ends, ending at either a yard or the village's edge. The mediaeval fortifications around Duchroth, and the two gates no longer exist. Nevertheless, the Historischer Ringpfad still follows the alignment of the now long gone moat.[12]

Grape growing has a centuries-long tradition in Duchroth. Just as varied as the structure of the lands are the vineyard soils in Duchroth's outlying countryside. What is found here mostly is weathered minerals of volcanic origin, but also mixtures of slate, pebbles and sandstone. To the northwest, sheltered by the Hunsrück’s heights, the most varied of white wine grape varieties thrive in a dry climate favourable to grapevines: Riesling, Silvaner, Müller-Thurgau, Kerner, Bacchus, Pinot blanc, Pinot gris, Faberrebe, Chardonnay, Scheurebe, Sauvignon blanc and Ehrenfelser. Also grown here for making red wine and rosé are Pinot noir, Dornfelder and Regent. The Rebsortenlehrpfad (“Grape variety teaching path”) teaches the visitor all about these varieties.[13]

The following clubs are active in Duchroth:[14]

• Angelverein — angling club
• Förderverein Aktionsräume — “Home Ranges” promotional association
• Förderverein Feuerwehr — fire brigade promotional association
• Förderverein TuS Duchroth — TuS Duchroth promotional association
• Freiwillige Feuerwehr — volunteer fire brigade
• Kultur und Landschaft Duchroth — “Duchroth Culture and Landscape”
• Landfrauen — countrywomen's club
• TuS Duchroth — gymnastic and sport club.

Duchroth belongs to the “Nahetal Winegrowing Area” within the Nahe wine region. In business in the village are eleven winegrowing operations, and the area of vineyard planted is 35 ha. Some 85% of the wine grown here (as at 2007) is white wine varieties. In 1979, there were still 36 winegrowing operations, and the vineyard area, at 59 ha, was almost twice what it is now.[15]

To Duchroth's north runs Bundesstraße 41. Serving Norheim and Staudernheim are railway stations on the Nahe Valley Railway (Bingen–Saarbrücken).

• Johann Eimann (1764–1847), German colonist in the Kingdom of Hungary
• August Geib (1842–1879), early socialist lyricist, book dealer and Member of the Reichstag, founding member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany and its first treasurer.