Kerschenbach - History

History

When Kerschenbach came into being is lost in the mists of time. The placename ending —bach points to beginnings in the time of the clearings in the Eifel, putting them in the 12th century.

The name “Kerschenbach” is closely tied to the like-named brook. In the 17th and 18th centuries, the village was called Kirschembach. The determinative Kerschen— goes back to the Old High German word kar, meaning “dale” or “hollow”. Kerschenbach therefore means “Dalebrook”

Unlike what has been unearthed in other, nearby municipalities, no traces of Roman occupation have come to light in Kerschenbach. There was some excitement when building works at the new village square brought up some ceramic piping that was thought might be Roman. However, the discovery turned into a disappointment when it became clear that the old pipes were actually the ones that had once been used to feed the old village drinking trough, and were not nearly old enough to be called ancient. Furthermore, they came not from Rome, but rather from the Kannenbäckerland (“Jug Bakers’ Land”, a small region still known for its ceramics industry) in the Westerwaldkreis, also in Rhineland-Palatinate.

In 1327, Kerschenbach had its first documentary mention when the knight Friedrich I von Kronenburg was enfeoffed with the dynastic castle along with a few surrounding villages, among which was Kerschenbach. From another document from 1345, one gathers that Counts Arnold I and Gerhard V, as Counts of Blankenheim, transferred, among other villages, Kerschenbach to King John of Bohemia, who was also Count in right of Luxembourg. For 2,000 Schildgulden, the comital brothers got the area back, but under the terms of the deal, they were obliged to help the Count of Luxembourg in times of war. In accordance with this document, Kerschenbach belonged under the Blankenheim lordship in the estate of Stadtkyll. In the end, almost the whole Eifel area passed to the Counts of Manderscheid. As of 1468, the Counties of Blankenheim and Gerolstein found themselves among this house’s holdings and hence, so did Kerschenbach. In this time, Kerschenbach must have had a high court. In the 1488 agreement between Counts Cuno and Johann von Manderscheid dealing with the division of their inheritance, it comes to light that Count Cuno was awarded one half of all taxes, while his brother Count Johann was awarded not only the other half of this, but also the “high court at Kerschenbach”.

After the Thirty Years' War, only three families were left in Kerschenbach, headed by Theiß Webers, Gotthard Ebertz and Richard Holtz. The witch hunts that were being undertaken at this same time did not spare Kerschenbach women. As early as 1581, a woman named Katharina (Threin) Schligers had been put to death as a witch. This burning was one of the earliest in the High Eifel area. In 1633, another woman, Margarethe Heinen, fell victim to this madness.

The Plague brought not only hardship and misery to the area in the 17th century, but also it created a border oddity that persisted for quite a long time. Three families who had been living in a Kronenburg-held area moved to Kerschenbach as a result of the Plague outbreak, and although they now lived in Blankenheim-Gerolstein territory (estate of Stadtkyll), they remained Kronenburg-Luxembourgish subjects. In 1796, under French rule, these three families’ houses passed along with the Mairie (“Mayoralty”) of Kronenburg to the Department of Ourthe, whereas the village of Kerschenbach belonged to the Mairie of Stadtkyll in the Department of Sarre. Even ecclesiastically, these three houses went their separate way, passing in 1801 along with Kronenburg to the Diocese of Liège and in 1821 to the Archdiocese of Cologne. The Cologne Vicariate called Kerschenbach “part Spanish – part Gerolstein territory”. The two priests, one each from Stadtkyll and Kronenburg, got together on this matter and decided that they would both go about spiritual duties in Kerschenbach, of whichever of them it was asked, or whichever of them happened to be in Kerschenbach at any particular time.

After the time of French rule, this situation did not straighten itself out instantly. Instead, the three houses passed first under terms issued at the Congress of Vienna (1814-1815) along with Kronenburg to Meckenburg-Strelitz until 1819, when it became, again along with Kronenburg, part of Prussia’s Rhine Province, and more locally part of the Schleiden district in the Regierungsbezirk of Aachen. Kerschenbach, on the other hand, passed to the Bürgermeisterei (“Mayoralty”) of Stadtkyll and thereby in 1816 to the newly formed Prüm district. Owing to the many petitions, the whole village of Kerschenbach was eventually assigned to the Bürgermeisterei (later Amtsbürgermeisterei) of Stadtkyll, thus ending the saga of the three houses.

Since administrative reform in 1970, Kerschenbach has belonged to the Verbandsgemeinde of Obere Kyll in the Daun district, although this was renamed the Vulkaneifel district in 2007.