Sarmersbach - History

History

Sarmersbach had its first documentary mention only in 1316, but its founding may be placed in Frankish times in the 9th and 10th centuries. Even earlier than that, however, Celts and Romans had settled the broad fields. Archaeological finds from a small Roman temple in the “Auf den Steinen” area can today be found in the State Museum in Trier. Right near Sarmersbach ran the former Roman road between Trier and Cologne. An ancient indulgence cross, the so-called Afelskreuz, today stands at a prominent spot, an historical procession point, and nowadays a destination for many hikers and also worshippers.

Sarmersbach experienced Germany’s long history in microcosm in the Middle Ages. They were held by both secular lords, such as the Castle Lords of Daun, the Lords of Winneburg and the Lords of Brohl, and ecclesiastical ones such as the Archbishopric of Trier and Springiersbach Abbey, under whom the unfree peasants toiled away at compulsory labour and paid their tithes. Sarmersbach’s great importance in days of yore in the middle of the Struth villages can also be seen in the 14th-century Schöffenstuhl. This was the seat of seven elected Schöffen (roughly “lay jurists”), who along with their 49 colleagues in Daun and the Daun Amtmann or the Archbishop of Trier held the assizes several times each year, meting out justice for the Amt of Daun.

The Thirty Years' War with its attendant devastating Plague brought death to half the villagers. Almost the whole 17th century with its violent disputes between various lordly houses brought neediness, suffering and misery to the poverty-stricken Struth.

After the French Revolution, the Eifel, and thereby Sarmersbach too, were ceded to France. The French administration made Sarmersbach the administrative seat of the like-named mairie (“mayoralty”), to which belonged not only Sarmersbach but also Beinhausen, Boxberg, Kradenbach, Gefell, Hörschhausen, Katzwinkel, Neichen, Nerdlen, Schönbach and Utzerath. This arrangement persisted into Prussian times in 1815 after the Congress of Vienna (although the German-speaking Prussians called it a Bürgermeisterei, also meaning “mayoralty”). The Prussians also grouped Sarmersbach into the Daun district in the Rhineland, and this arrangement lasted until the mid-1920s. Ever since, Sarmersbach has been administered by the Bürgermeisterei – later the Verbandsgemeinde – of Daun.

Sarmersbach was until the late 1960s a rural farming village. Since then, agriculture has undergone a swift change in structure. While there were still 4,216 agricultural businesses in the Daun district (now the Vulkaneifel district) in 1971, by 2000 there were fewer than 1,500. In Sarmersbach, there are still a very big computer-driven dairy farm and a Demeter operation, recognized as good. Changes in agriculture were parallelled by changes in the face of the village. The once characteristic timber-frame buildings have almost without exception disappeared. New town developments are also attracting newcomers to Sarmersbach.