Merxheim - History

History

Merxheim appeared in the records for the first time in 1061, when the Archbishop of Trier, Eberhard, gave the property of "Merkedesheim" to the Simeonstift of Trier. In the early 12th Century, the spelling of "Merxheim" was used for the first time, in a deed of confirmation from the Archbishop of Mainz, Adalbert I von Saarbrücken. In 1350, a Ritter named Conrad von Merxheim was mentioned. His two children, Rorich and Adelheid, were the heirs of his estates in Merxheim, and they shared it until Rorich died. Then the village of Merxheim and its so-called "castle" were divided. One half went to the family of the Vögte von Hunolstein, and the other to Weyrich von Hohenburg. But it was the Freiherren von Hunolstein that would rule Merxheim for the next four centuries.

Like so many of the towns and villages in the Nahe River Valley, Merxheim had had a hard life, filled with wars and disasters. In the Landshut War of Succession (1503-1504), the village was plundered by the troops of Alexander, Count Palatine of Zweibrücken. In 1504 Merxheim was completely burned. In September 1612, the plague came. In just four months, it killed 228 people. In 1778 and 1788, because of the heavy rains, mudslides came to Merxheim and crushed whole houses at a time. But the worst catastrophe in the history of the village happened on 24 July 1870, when a fire was started by children playing in a barn. Within three hours, 107 houses and farms were destroyed. The old "Nuremberg Tower”, the village's landmark for centuries, was completely burnt out and had to demolished. Even the Evangelical Lutheran Church was not spared but it was quickly rebuilt.

Napoleon and his Grande Armée ended the barony of Hunolstein. From 1798 to 1814, Merxheim was French. It was a part of the Département de la Saar in the French Empire. This was when it was assigned to the district (French: canton) of Meisenheim for the first time, for the prefecture (French: arrondissement) of Birkenfeld. In 1816, the Congress of Vienna gave it to the Landgraviate of Hesse-Homburg but it remained in the district (German: Oberamt) of Meisenheim. It was Homburger for 50 years. Then, in 1866, after the Seven Weeks War, the victorious Kingdom of Prussia annexed Merxheim and put it in the Rheinprovinz . But Merxheim still belonged to the district (now Kreis) of Meisenheim. It stayed Prussian until the end of the First World War, when it finally became German.

The growth of the population of Merxheim, between 1871 and 1987, according to the numbers from the national censuses: