Drolshagen - History

History

The Sauerland, then known as Süderland, had been part of the Duchy of Saxony when it was given to the Archbishop of Cologne, Philipp, in 1180. In 1413, the townsfolk and Denklingen Castle were under the control of the Duke of Berg as part of the feudal system existing at the time. From 1470, the historical record mentions knights in Drolshagen.

Drolshagen was granted town rights on 2 March 1477 by Ruprecht, Archbishop of Cologne, thus entitling it to a market and walls. In 1485, these were not only confirmed but also strengthened by Archbishop Hermann IV, who added the right to hold a fair. Long before Droshagen received its town charter it had already been a Freiheit ("freedom") meaning that it had already been granted privileges close to a town charter. As such, Drolshagen had a mayor, a council and a seal of its own. Even by 1477, this “freedom’s” sphere of influence within the Sauerland was already quite broad. The Cistercian monastery, endowed in 1235, fell into a quarrel with the town beginning in 1550 over who had rights to the St.-Clemens-Kirche (church), which in turn led to a trial in Rome.

In 1604, according to the Chronica Drolshagensis, Drolshagen was a member of the Hanse and traded with other Hanseatic cities, especially in Eastern Europe. In 1838, Drolshagen was almost utterly destroyed by fire. When the town was built anew, it had its streets laid out in a grid pattern. During World War II the town was spared bombing and thus still has many of its old buildings. In the course of municipal restructuring in North Rhine-Westphalia, the old Ämter of Drolshagen-Stadt (town) and Drolshagen-Land (country) were merged into the new town of Drolshagen in 1969.

As to the name's development, there are several theories, the likeliest of which appears in the Chronica Drolshagensis, according to which a knight named Drogilo established a Hag (a place ringed by hedgerows) on what is now the town's site, which he named Drogileshagino. Over time, this would have been corrupted to the name used today: Drolshagen

Witnesses to Drolshagen's past are St. Clement's Church whose middle section dates back to a Cistercian monastery established by the Counts of Sayn. Today only parts of buildings of the former monastery remain.