Alpenrod

Infobox Ort in Deutschland
image_photo =
Wappen = Wappen_Alpenrod.pnglat_deg = 50 |lat_min = 37 |lat_sec = 53
lon_deg = 7 |lon_min = 52 |lon_sec = 09
Lageplan = Alpenrod im Westerwaldkreis.pngBundesland = Rheinland-Pfalz
Landkreis = Westerwaldkreis
Verbandsgemeinde = Hachenburg
Höhe = 450
Fläche = 12.15
Einwohner = 1571
Stand = 2006-12-31
PLZ = 57642
Vorwahl = 02662
Kfz = WW
Gemeindeschlüssel = 07 1 43 202
Gliederung = 3
Adresse-Verband = Gartenstraße 11 57627 Hachenburg
Website = [http://www.alpenrod.de/ www.alpenrod.de]
Bürgermeister = Beate Salzer
Partei = SPD

Alpenrod is an "Ortsgemeinde" – a community belonging to a "Verbandsgemeinde" – in the Westerwaldkreis in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. The Gräbersberg (513 m above sea level) on the "Gemarkung Alpenrod" – a rural area attached to the community – is the highest point in the "Verbandsgemeinde" of Hachenburg, a kind of collective municipality found only in Rhineland-Palatinate. On the Gräbersberg stands an observation tower with a viewing platform 30 m high and open to the public.

Location

The community lies in the Westerwald between Koblenz and Siegen. Flowing through the community is the river Große Nister. Alpenrod belongs to the "Verbandsgemeinde" of Hachenburg, whose seat is in the town of Hachenburg.

Constituent communities

Alpenrod’s "Ortsteile" are Alpenrod, Hirtscheid and Dehlingen.

History

Presumed to be the community’s founder is the "Vogt" (roughly “reeve”) Adalbert von Freusburg. In a document from the year 1320, the village is mentioned for the first time as "Albrechtsrode". Here also once stood a castle to guard the ways along the Nichel. However, at least as early as 1131, there had once been a chapel with a small settlement.

The current church’s tower has its roots in this time. Estimates put its beginnings in the 10th century. Alpenrod has two outlying centres, Dehlingen (whose first settler, in 1618, was named Dillinger) and Hirtscheid (meaning “hart border”). Running in the latter by 1551 was a valley mill. Count Salentin Ernst von Manderscheid-Sayn tried more than once (1657; 1678-1680) to get traffic on the Cologne-Frankfurt road – nowadays "Bundesstraße" 8 – to come through Hachenburg, building a post road which led above Alpenrod, passing by the Neuhof estate, and which is still called the “Post Road” ("Poststraße") today. The Cologne-Leipzig road and the Cologne-Frankfurt road were the most important long-distance roads from the time of the Merovingian kings. Since the dale was boggy and not fully passable in the old days, all roadways led over the heights, like the old post road. It is believed that this road was already used in Celtic times. [Summary & translation thereof from "Das Kirchspiel Alpenrod im Westerwald und seine Bewohner im 17. und 18. Jahrhundert" by Heinrich Heimann and Irmtraut Weinknecht 1967; publisher: Zentralstelle für Personen und Familiengeschichte Frankfurt am Main – applies to whole section]

Politik

Gemeinderat

The council is made up of 17 council members, including the extraofficial mayor ("Bürgermeister"), who were elected in a municipal election on 13 June 2004.

Economy and infrastructure

Transport

The community lies between "Bundesstraßen" 255, linking Koblenz and Hachenburg, and 414, leading from Montabaur to Herborn. The A 3 with its "Montabaur" interchange (AS 40) lies 25 km away. The nearest InterCityExpress stop is the railway station at Montabaur on the Cologne-Frankfurt high-speed rail line.

Buildings

* Observation tower on the Gräbersberg

Famous people

Sons and daughters of the town

* Hellmuth Gensicke (boen 29 June 1917; died 17 September 2006 in Wiesbaden), Westerwald regional historian and archivist.

External links

* [http://www.gemeinde-alpenrod.de Alpenrod with its own interactive Internet entry]
* [http://www.hachenburg-vg.de/08_gemeinden/alpenrod/index.html Alpenrod in the collective municipality’s Web pages] de icon

References