Senheim - History

History

The earliest record, from 1067, establishes the existence of holdings of the Cologne Church in Senhals. Senheim had its first documentary mention in 1140.

Three lords held sway in Senheim, namely the Elector of Trier, the Count of Sponheim and the Lords of Braunshorn-Metternich-Beilstein.

Senheim-Senhals was in the Middle Ages an important way station on the trade road that ran from the Netherlands through the Eifel by way of Senheim, through the Hunsrück and on to Frankfurt am Main and Augsburg. As far back as the Middle Ages, Senheimers earned their livelihood in winegrowing and agriculture (using a kind of shifting cultivation). It can be seen from the 1702 Electoral-Trier taxation statistics that vineyard holdings in the church’s and the nobility’s hands amounted to 300,000 vines. Winemakers held 200,000. The Sponheims held the other 100,000.

Beginning in 1778, the Electorate of Trier was the sole landholder. During the French Revolutionary Wars, the region was occupied by French troops in 1793 and 1794. In 1798, the region was made part of the Department of Rhin-et-Moselle, and thereby became part of France. In 1815 it was assigned to the Kingdom of Prussia at the Congress of Vienna.

The Senheim of the 17th and 18th centuries with its fortifications, towers, crenellations and gates, and its great number of stately noble and monastic estates, came to a sudden end on 13 August 1839: a great fire reduced the mediaeval village in a short time to ashes and rubble. Burnt down in this catastrophe were 106 houses, 22 winepress houses and 7 barns. The Catholic church, built in 1075 with its grand Baroque altar by Januarius Zick and the rectory came through the fire unscathed. When reconstruction was undertaken, an extensive plan was developed which left 30 local families without a place to live in the village. For them, a new, outlying centre was established up on the Hunsrück’s heights. It was named the “colony” of Hoch-Senheim (hoch means “high” in German), although soon after it was finished, it was given the name Moritzheim to honour its sponsor, the Landrat (district chairman) Moritz.

Since 1946, Senheim has been part of the then newly founded state of Rhineland-Palatinate. Under the Verwaltungsvereinfachungsgesetz (“Administration Simplification Law”) of 18 July 1970, with effect from 7 November 1970, the municipality was grouped into the Verbandsgemeinde of Cochem.